MARVELS 

OF 

MODERN SCIENCE 












Class JXL1S- 
Book_ S h _ 

Copyright N°_ 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 








































Marvels of 
Modern Science 


By 

PAUL SEVERING 


Edited by 

THEODORE WATERS 


THE CHRISTIAN HERALD 
BIBLE H OUSE 
NEW YORK 








Copyright, 1910, by 

THE CHRISTIAN HERALD 

NEW YORK 


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©01A 27819 6 




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Marvels of 
Modern Science 

























Contents 


CHAPTER I 

FLYING MACHINES 

Early attempts at flight. The Dirigible. Prof. 
Langley’s experiments. The Wright Brothers. 
Count Zeppelin. Recent aeroplane records. 

CHAPTER II 

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

Primitive signalling. Principles of wireless 
telegraphy. Ether vibrations. Wireless appar¬ 
atus. The Marconi system. 

CHAPTER III 

RADIUM 

Experiments of Becquerel. Work of the 
Curies. Discovery of Radium. Enormous en¬ 
ergy. Various uses. 

CHAPTER IV 

MOVING PICTURES 

Photographing motion. Edison’s Kinetoscope. 
Lumiere’s Cinematographe. Before the camera. 
The mission of the moving picture. Edison’s 
latest triumph. 


v 




vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V 

SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW THEY ARE BUILT 

Evolution of the sky-scraper. Construc¬ 
tion. New York’s giant buildings. Dimensions. 

CHAPTER VI 

OCEAN PALACES 

Ocean greyhounds. Present day floating pal¬ 
aces. Regal appointments. Passenger accom¬ 
modation. Food consumption. The one thou¬ 
sand foot boat. 


CHAPTER VII 

WONDERFUL CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 

Mating Plants. Experiments of Burbank. 
What he has accomplished. 

CHAPTER VIII 

LATEST DISCOVERIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY 

Prehistoric time. Earliest records. Discover¬ 
ies in Bible lands. American explorations. 

CHAPTER IX 

GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 

Primitive Tunnelling. Hoosac Tunnel. Cro¬ 
ton aqueduct. Great Alpine tunnels. New York 
subway. McAdoo tunnels. How tunnels are 
Tuilt. 


CONTENTS 


•«>* 


VII 


CHAPTER X 

ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 

Electrically equipped houses. Cooking by 
electricity. Comforts and conveniences. 


CHAPTER XI 

HARNESSING THE WATER-FALL 

Electric energy. High pressure. Transform¬ 
ers. Development of water-power. 



CHAPTER XII 

WONDERFUL WAR SHIPS 


Dimensions, displacements, cost and descrip¬ 
tion of battleships. Capacity and speed. Pre¬ 
paring for the future. 


CHAPTER XIII 

A TALK ON BIG GUNS 

The first projectiles. Introduction of cannon.. 
High pressure guns. Machine guns. Dimen¬ 
sions and cost of big guns. 


CHAPTER XIV 

MYSTERY OF THE STARS 

Wonders of the universe. Star Photography. 
The infinity of space. 




viii 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER XV 

CAN WE COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER WORLDS? 

Vastness of Nature. Star distances. Prob¬ 
lem of communicating with Mars. The Great 
Beyond. 




Introduction 


The 1 purpose of this little book is to give 
a general idea of a few of the great 
achievements of our time. 

Within such a limited space it was im¬ 
possible to even mention thousands more 
of the great inventions and triumphs which 
mark the rushing progress of the world 
in the present century; therefore, only 
those subjects have been treated which ap¬ 
peal with more than passing interest to all. 
For instance, the flying machine is engag¬ 
ing the attention of the old, the young and 
the middle-aged, and soon the whole world 
will be on the wing. Radium, “ the re- 
vealer,” is opening the door to possibili¬ 
ties almost beyond human conception. 
Wireless Telegraphy is crossing thousands 
of miles of space with invisible feet and 
making the nations of the earth as one. ’Tis 
the same with the other subjects,—one and 
all are of vital, human interest, and are 
extremely attractive on account of their 
importance in the civilization of to-day. 

Mighty, sublime, wonderful, as have been 
the achievements of past science, as yet we 
are but on the verge of the continents of 


IX 



X 


INTRODUCTION 


discovery. Where is the wizard who can 
tell what lies in the womb of time? Just 
as our conceptions of many things have 
been revolutionized in the past, those which 
we hold to-day of the cosmic processes may 
have to be remodeled in the future. 

The men of fifty years hence may laugh 
at the circumscribed knowledge of the 
present and shake their wise heads in con¬ 
templation of what they will term our cru¬ 
dities, and which we now call progress. 

Science is ever on the march and what is 
new to-day will be old to-morrow. We can¬ 
not go back, we must go forward, and al¬ 
though we can never reach finality in 
aught, we can improve on the past to en¬ 
rich the future. 

If this volume creates an interest and 
arouses an enthusiasm in the ordinary men 
and women into whose hands it may come, 
and stimulates them to a study of the great 
events making for the enlightenment, 
progress and elevation of the race, it shall 
have fulfilled its mission and serve the 
purpose for which it was written. 




Marvels of Modem 



CHAPTER I 


FLYING MACHINES 


Early Attempts at Flight—The Dirigible—• 
Professor Langley’s Experiment—The 
' Wright Brothers—Count Zeppelin—Re¬ 
cent Aeroplane Records. 

It is hard to determine when men first- 
essayed the attempt to fly. In myth, legend 
and tradition we find allusions to aerial 
flight and from the very dawn of authentic 
history, philosophers, poets, and writers 
have made allusion to the subject, showing 
that the idea must have early taken root in 
the restless human heart. 

ZEschylus exclaims: 

“ Oh, might I sit, sublime in air 
Where watery clouds the freezing snows 
prepare! ” 

Ariosto in his “ Orlando Furioso ” makes 


l 




3 


FLYING MACHINES 


an English knight, whom he names Astol- 
pho, fly to the banks of the Nile; nowadays 
the authors are trying to make their heroes 
fly to the North Pole. 

Some will have it that the ancient world 
had a civilization much higher than the 
modern and was more advanced in knowl¬ 
edge. It is claimed that steam engines and 
electricity were common in Egypt thousands 
of years ago and that literature, science, 
art, and architecture flourished as never 
since. Certain it is that the Pyramids were 
for a long time the most solid “ Sky¬ 
scrapers ” in the world. T 

Perhaps, after all, our boasted progress 
is but a case of going back to first princi¬ 
ples, of history, or rather tradition repeating 
itself. The flying machine may not be as 
new as we think it is. At any rate the 
conception of it is old enough. 

In the thirteenth century Roger Bacon, 
often called the “ Father of Philosophy/’ 
maintained that the air could be navigated. 
He suggested a hollow globe of copper to 
be filled with “ ethereal air or liquid fire,” 
but he never tried to put his suggestion into 
practice. Father Vasson, a missionary at 
Canton, in a letter dated September 5, 1694, 
mentions a balloon that ascended on the 
occasion of the coronation of the Empress 
Fo-Kien in 1306, but he does not state 
where he got the information. 





FLYING MACHINES 


3 


The balloon is the earliest form of air 
machine of which we have record. In 
1767 a Dr. Black of Edinburgh suggested 
that a thin bladder could be made to ascend 
if filled with inflammable air, the name then 
given to hydrogen gas. 

In 1782 Cavallo succeeded in sending up 
a soap bubble filled with such gas. 

It was in the same year that the Mont¬ 
golfier brothers of Annonay, near Lyons in 
France, conceived the idea of using hot air 
for lifting things into the air. They got 
this idea from watching the smoke curling 
up the chimney from the heat of the fire 
beneath. 

In 1783 they constructed the first success¬ 
ful balloon of which we have any descrip¬ 
tion. It was in the form of a round ball, 
no feet in circumference and, with the 
frame weighed 300 pounds. It was filled 
with 22,000 cubic feet of vapor. It rose 
to a height of 6,000 feet and proceeded al¬ 
most 7,000 feet, when it gently descended. 
France went wild over the exhibition. 

The first to risk their lives in the air 
were M. Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis 
de Arlandes, who ascended over Paris in a 
hot-air balloon in November, 1783. They 
rose five hundred feet and traveled a dis¬ 
tance of five miles in twenty-five minutes. 

In the following December Messrs. 
Charles and Robert, also Frenchmen, as- 




4 


FLYING MACHINES 


cended ten thousand feet and traveled 
twenty-seven miles in two hours. 

The first balloon ascension in Great 
Britain was made by an experimenter 
named Tytler in 1784. A few months later 
Lunardi sailed over London. 

In 1836 three Englishmen, Green, Mason 
and Holland, went from London to Ger¬ 
many, five hundred miles, in eighteen hours. 

The greatest balloon exhibition up to 
then, indeed the greatest ever, as it has 
never been surpassed, was given by Glai- 
sher and Coxwell, two Englishmen, near 
Wolverhampton, on September 5, 1862. 
They ascended to such an elevation that 
both lost the power of their limbs, and had 
not Coxwell opened the descending valve 
with his teeth, they would have ascended 
higher and probably lost their lives in the 
rarefied atmosphere, for there was no com¬ 
pressed oxygen then as now to inhale into 
their lungs. The last reckoning of which 
they were capable before Glaisher lost con¬ 
sciousness showed an elevation of twenty- 
nine thousand feet, but it is supposed that 
they ascended eight thousand feet higher 
before Coxwell was able to open the de¬ 
scending valve. In 1901 in the city of Ber¬ 
lin two Germans rose to a height of thirty- 
five thousand feet, but the two Englishmen 
of almost fifty years ago are still given 
credit for the highest ascent. 


FLYING MACHINES 


5 


The largest balloon ever sent aloft was 
the “Giant” of M. Nadar, a Frenchman, 
which had a capacity of 215,000 cubic feet 
and required for a covering 22,000 yards of 
silk. It ascended from the Champ de 
Mars, Paris, in 1853, with fifteen passen¬ 
gers, all of whom came back safely. 

The longest flight made in a balloon was 
that by Count de La Vaulx, 1193 miles in 
1905. 

A mammoth balloon was built in Lon¬ 
don by A. E. Gaudron. In 1908 with 
three other aeronauts Gaudron crossed 
from the Crystal Palace to the Belgian 
Coast at Ostefid and then drifted over 
Northern Germany and was finally driven 
down by a snow storm at Mateki Derevni 
in Russia, having traveled 1,117 miles in 
31^ hours. The first attempt at constructing 
a dirigible balloon or airship was made by 
M. Giffard, a Frenchman, in 1852. The 
bag was spindle-shaped and 144 feet from 
point to point. Though it could be steered 
without drifting the motor was too weak to 
propel it. Giffard had many imitations in 
the spindle-shaped envelope construction, 
but it was a long time before any good re¬ 
sults were obtained. 

It was not until 1884 that M. Gaston 
Tissandier constructed a dirigible in any 
way worthy of the name. It was operated 
by a motor driven by a bichromate of soda 


6 


FLYING M AC HI NFS 


battery. The motor weighed 121 lbs. The 
cells held liquid enough to work for 21- 
hours, generating ij horse power. The 
screw had two arms and was over nine 
feet in circumference. Tissandier made 
some successful flights. 

The first dirigible balloon to return 
whence it started was that known as La 
France. This airship was also constructed 
in 1884. The designer was Commander 
Renard of the French Marine Corps as¬ 
sisted by Captain Krebs of the same service. 
The length of the envelope was 179 feet, its 
diameter 27J feet. The screw was in front 
instead of behind as in all others previously 
constructed. The motor which weighed 
220.5 lbs. was driven by electricity and de¬ 
veloped 8.5 horse power. The propeller was 
24 feet in diameter and only made 46 revo¬ 
lutions to the minute. This was the first 
time electricity was used as a motor force, 
and mighty possibilities were conceived. 

In 1901 a young Brazilian, Santos- 
Dumont, made a spectacular flight. M. 
Deutch, a Parisian millionaire, offered a 
prize of $20,000 for the first dirigible that 
would fly from the Parc d’Aerostat, encir¬ 
cle the Eiffel Tower and return to the start¬ 
ing point within thirty minutes, the dis¬ 
tance of such flight being about nine miles. 
Dumont won the prize though he was some 
forty seconds over time. The length of 




FLYING MACHINES 7 

his dirigible on this occasion was 108 feet, 
the diameter 19J feet. It had a 4-cylinder 
petroleum motor weighing 216 lbs., which 
generated 20 horse power. The screw was 
13 feet in diameter and made three hundred 
revolutions to the minute. 

From this time onward great progress 
was made in the constructing of airships. 
Government officials and many others 
turned their attention to the work. Fac¬ 
tories were put in operation in several 
countries of Europe and by the year 1905 
the dirigible had been fairly well estab¬ 
lished. Zeppelin, Parseval, Lebaudy, Baid- 
win and Gross were crowding one another 
for honors. All had given good results, 
Zeppelin especially had performed some re¬ 
markable feats with his machines. 

In the construction of the dirigible bal¬ 
loon great care must be taken to build a 
strong, as well as light framework and to 
suspend the car from it so that the weight 
will be equally distributed, and above all, so 
to contrive the gas contained that under no 
circumstances can it become tilted. There 
is great danger in the event of tilting that 
some of the stays suspending the car may 
snap and the construction fall to pieces in 
the air. 

In deciding upon the shape of a dirigi¬ 
ble balloon the chief consideration is to 
secure an end surface which presents the 



8 FLYING MACHINES 

least possible resistance to the air and also 
to secure stability and equilibrium. Of 
course the motor, fuel and propellers are 
other considerations of vital importance. 

The first experimenter on the size of wing 
surface necessary to sustain a man in the 
air, calculated from the proportion of 
weight and wing surface in birds, was Karl 
Meerwein of Baden. ITe calculated that 
a man weighing 200 lbs. would require 128 
square feet. In 1781 he made a spindle- 
shaped apparatus presenting such a surface 
to the resistance of the air. It was col¬ 
lapsible on the middle and here the ope¬ 
rator was fastened and lay horizontally 
with his face towards the earth working 
the collapsible wings by means of a trans¬ 
verse rod. It was not a success. 

During the first half of the 19th Century 
there were many experiments with wing 
surfaces, none of which gave any promise. 
In fact it was not until 1865 that any ad¬ 
vance was made, when Francis Wenham 
showed that the lifting power of a plane of 
great superficial area could be obtained by 
dividing the large plane into several parts 
arranged on tiers. This may be regarded 
as the germ of the modern aeroplane, the 
first glimmer of hope to filter through the 
darkness of experimentation until then. 
When Wenham’s apparatus went against a 
strong wind it was only lifted up and 


FLYING MACHINES 


9 


thrown back. However, the idea gave 
thought to many others years afterwards. 

In 1885 the brothers Lilienthal in Ger¬ 
many discovered the possibility of driving 
curved aeroplanes against the wind. Otto 
Lilienthal held that it was necessary to be¬ 
gin with “ sailing ” flight and first of all 
that the art of balancing in the air must be 
learned by practical experiments. He 
made several flights of the kind now known 
as gliding. From a height of 100 feet he 
glided a distance of 700 feet and found he 
could deflect his flight from left to right 
by moving his legs which were hanging 
freely from the seat. He attached a light 
motor weighing only 96 lbs. and generat¬ 
ing 2\ horse power. To sustain the 
weight he had to increase the size of his 
planes. 

Unfortunately this pioneer in modern 
aviation was killed in an experiment, but 
he left much data behind which has helped 
others. His was the first actual flyer 
which demonstrated the elementary laws 
governing real flight and blazed the way 
for the successful experiments of the pres¬ 
ent time. His example made the gliding 
machine a continuous performance until 
real practical aerial flight was achieved. 

As far back as 1894 Maxim built a giant 
aeroplane but it was too cumbersome to be 
operated. 








10 


FLYING MACHINES 


In America the wonderful work of Pro¬ 
fessor Langley of the Smithsonian Insti¬ 
tution with his aerodromes attracted world¬ 
wide attention. Langley was the great 
originator of the science of aerodynamics 
on this side of the water. Langley studied 
from artificial birds which he had con¬ 
structed and kept almost constantly before 
him. 

To Langley, Chanute, Herring and 
Manly, America owes much in the way of 
aeronautics before the Wrights entered the 
field. The Wrights have given the great¬ 
est impetus to modern aviation. They en¬ 
tered the field in 1900 and immediately 
achieved greater results than any of their 
predecessors. They followed the idea of 
Lilienthal to a certain extent. They made 
gliders in which the aviator had a horizon¬ 
tal position and they used twice as great a 
lifting surface as that hitherto employed. 
The flights of their first motor machine was 
made December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, 
N. C. In 1904 with a new machine they 
resumed experiments at their home near 
Dayton, O. In September of that year 
they succeeded in changing the course from 
one dead against the wind to a curved path 
where cross currents must be encountered, 
and made many circular flights. During 
1906 they rested for a while from practical 
flight, perfecting plans for the future. In 




FLYING MACHINES 


11 


the beginning of September, 1908, Orville 
Wright made an aeroplane flight of one 
hour, and a few days later stayed up one 
hour and fourteen minutes. Wilbur 
Wright went to France and began a series 
of remarkable flights taking up passengers. 
On December 31, of that year, he startled 
the world by making the record flight of 
two hours and nineteen minutes. 

It was on Sept. 13, 1906, that Santos- 
Dumont made the first officially recorded 
European aeroplane flight, leaving the 
ground for a distance of 12 yards. On 
November 12, of same year, he remained in 
the air for 21 seconds and traveled a dis¬ 
tance of 230 yards. These feats caused a 
great sensation at the time. 

While the Wrights were achieving fame 
for America, Henri Farman was busy in 
England. On October 26, 1907, he flew 
820 yards in 52J seconds. On July 6, 1908, 
he remained in the air for 20-J minutes. 
On October 31, same year, in France, he 
flew from Chalons to Rheims, a distance of 
sixteen miles, in twenty minutes. 

The year 1909 witnessed mighty strides 
in the field of aviation. Thousands of 
flights were made, many of which exceeded 
the most sanguine anticipations. On July 
13, Bleriot flew from Etampes to Chevilly, 
26 miles, in 44 minutes and 30 seconds, and 
on July 25 he made the first flight across 









n FLYING MACHINES 

« 

the British Channel, 32 miles, in 37 minutes. 
Orville Wright made several sensational 
flights in his biplane around Berlin, while 
his brother Wilbur delighted New Yorkers 
by circling the Statue of Liberty and flying 
up the Hudson from Governor’s Island to 
Grant’s Tomb and return, a distance of 21 
miles, in 33 minutes and 33 seconds during 
the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. On No¬ 
vember 20 Louis Paulhan, in a biplane, flew 
from Mourmelon to Chalons, France, and 
return, 37 miles in 55 minutes, rising to a 
height of 1000 feet. 

The dirigible airship was also much in 
evidence during 1909, Zeppelin, especially, 
X^erforming some remarkable feats. The 
Zeppelin V., subsequently re-numbered No. 
1, of the rigid type, 446 feet long, diameter 
42J feet and capacity 536,000 cubic feet, on 
March 29, rose to a height of 3,280, and on 
April 1, started with a crew of nine passen¬ 
gers from Frederickshafen to Munich. In 
a 35 mile gale it was carried beyond Mu¬ 
nich, but Zeppelin succeeded in coming to 
anchor. Other Zeppelin balloons made re¬ 
markable voyages during the year. But 
the latest achievements (1910) of the old 
German aeronaut have put all previous rec¬ 
ords into the shade and electrified the whole 
world. His new passenger airship, the 
Deutschland, on June 22, made a 300 mile 



FLxING MACHINES rS 

trip from Frederickschafen to Dusseldorf 
in 9 hours, carrying 20 passengers. This 
was at the rate of 33.33 miles per hour. 
During one hour of the journey a speed of 
43-J miles was averaged. The passengers 
were carried in a mahogany finished cabin 
and had all the comforts of a Pullman car, 
but most significant fact of all, the trip 
was made on schedule and with all regu¬ 
larity of an express train. 

Two days later Zeppelin eclipsed his own 
record air voyage when his vessel carried 
32 passengers, ten of whom w r ere women, 
in a 100 mile trip from Dusseldorf to Essen, 
Dortmund and Bochum and back. At one 
time on this occasion while traveling with 
the wind the airship made a speed of 56J 
miles. It passed through a heavy shower 
and forced its way against a strong head¬ 
wind without difficulty. 'The passengers 
were all delighted with the new mode of 
travel, which was very comfortable. This 
last dirigible masterpiece of Zeppelin may 
be styled the leviathan of the air. It is 485 
feet long with a total lifting power of 44,- 
000 lbs. It has three motors which total 
330 horse power and it drives at an average 
speed of about 33 miles an hour. A regu¬ 
lar passenger service has been established 
and tickets are selling at $50. 

The present year can also boast some 



14 


FLYING MACHINES 


great aeroplane records, notably by Curtiss 
and Hamilton in America and Farman and 
Paulhan in Europe. 

Curtiss flew from Albany to New York, 
a distance of 137 miles, at an average speed 
of 55 miles an hour and Hamilton flew 
from New York to Philadelphia and re¬ 
turn. The first night flight of a dirigible 
over New York City was made by Charles 
Goodale on July 19. He flew from Pali¬ 
sades Park on the Hudson and return. 

From a scientific toy the Flying Machine 
has been developed and perfected into a 
practical means of locomotion. It bids fair 
at no distant date to revolutionize the tran¬ 
sit of the world. No other art has ever 
made such progress in its early stages and 
every day witnesses an improvement. 

The air, though invisible to the eye, has 
mass and therefore offers resistance to all 
moving bodies. Therefore air-mass and 
air resistance are the first principles to be 
taken into consideration in the construction 
of an aeroplane. It must be built so that 
the air-mass will sustain it and the motor, 
and the motor must be of sufficient power 
to overcome the air resistance. 

A ship ploughing through the V waves pre¬ 
sents the line of least resistance to the water 
and so is shaped somewhat like a fish, the 
natural denizen of that element. It is dif¬ 
ferent with the aeroplane. In the intangi- 



FLYING MACHINES 


15 


ble domain it essays to overcome, there 
must be a sufficient surface to compress a 
certain volume of air to sustain the weight 
of the machinery. 

The surfaces in regard to size, shape, 
curvature, bracing and material, are all 
important. A great deal depends upon the 
curve of the surfaces. Two machines may 
have the same extent of surface and de¬ 
velop the same rate of speed, yet one may 
have a much greater lifting power than 
the other, provided it has a more efficient 
curve to its surface. Many people have a 
fallacious idea that the surfaces of an 
aeroplane are planes and this doubtless 
arises from the word itself. However, the 
last syllable in aeroplane has nothing what¬ 
ever to do with a flat surface. It is de¬ 
rived from the Greek pianos , wandering, 
therefore the entire word signifies an air 
wanderer. 

The surfaces are really aero curves 
arched in the rear of the front edge, thus 
allowing the supporting surface of the 
aeroplane in passing forward with its back¬ 
ward side set at an angle to the direction 
of its motion, to act upon the air in such a 
way as to tend to compress it on the under 
side. 

After the surfaces come the rudders in 
importance. It is of vital consequence that 
the machine be balanced by the operator. 



16 


FLYING MACHINES 


In the present method of balancing an 
aeroplane the idea in mind is to raise the 
lower side of the machine and make the 
higher side lower in order that it can be 
quickly righted when it tips to one side 
from a gust of wind, or when making angle 
at a sudden turn. To accomplish this, two 
methods can be employed. I. Changing the 
form of the wing. 2. Using separate sur¬ 
faces. One side can be made to lift more 
than the other by giving it a greater curve 
or extending the extremity. 

In balancing by means of separate sur¬ 
faces, which can be turned up or down on 
each side of the machine, the horizontal bal¬ 
ancing rudders are so connected that they 
will work in an opposite direction—while 
one is turned to lift one side, the other will 
act to lower the other side so as to strike 
an even balance. 

The motors and propellers next claim 
attention. It is the motor that makes avia¬ 
tion possible. It was owing in a very large 
measure to the introduction of the petrol 
motor that progress became rapid. Hith¬ 
erto many had laid the blame of everything 
on the motor. They had said,—“ give us a 
light and powerful engine and we will show 
you how to fly.” 

The first very light engine to be available 
was the Antoinette, built by Leon Levavas- 
seur in France. It enabled Santos-Dumont 





FLYING MACHINES IT 

to make his first public successful flights. 
Nearly all aeroplanes follow the same gen¬ 
eral principles of construction. Of course 
a good deal depends upon the form of 
aeroplane—whether a monoplane or a 
biplane. As these two forms are the chief 
ones, as yet, of heavier than-air machines, 
it would be well to understand them. The 
monoplane has single large surfaces like 
the wings of a bird, the biplane has two 
large surfaces braced together one over the 
other. At the present writing a triplane 
has been introduced into the domain of 
American aviation by an English aeronaut. 
Doubtless as the science progresses many 
other variations will appear in the field. 
Most machines, though fashioned on simi¬ 
lar lines, possess universal features. For 
instance, the Wright biplane is character¬ 
ized by warping wing tips and seams of 
heavy construction, while the surfaces of 
the Herring-Curtiss machine, are slight and 
it looks very light and buoyant as if well 
suited to its element. The Voisin biplane 
is fashioned after the manner of a box kite 
and therefore presents vertical surfaces to 
the air. Farman’s machine has no vertical 
surfaces, but there are hinged wing tips to 
the outer rear-edges of its surfaces, for use 
in turning and balancing. He also has a 
combination of wheels and skids or runners 
for starting and landing. 






18 


FLYING MACHINES 


The position to be occupied by the oper¬ 
ator also influences the construction. Some 
sit on top of the machine, others under¬ 
neath. In the Antoinette, Latham sits up 
in a sort of cockpit on the top. Bleriot sits 
far beneath his machine. In the latest con¬ 
struction of Santos-Dumont, the Demoi¬ 
selle, the aviator sits on the top. 

Aeroplanes have been constructed for the 
most part in Europe, especially in France. 
There may be said to be only one factory 
in America, that of Herring-Curtiss, at 
Hammondsport, N. Y., as the Wright 
place at Dayton is very small and 
only turns out motors and experimenting 
machines, and cannot be called a regular 
factory. The Wright machines are now 
manufactured by a French syndicate. It is 
said that the Wrights will have an Ameri¬ 
can factory at work in a short time. The 
French-made aeroplanes have given good 
satisfaction. These machines cost from 
$4,000 to $5,000, and generally have three 
cylinder motors developing from 25 to 35 
horse power. 

The latest model of Bleriot known as 
No. 12 has beaten the time record of Glenn 
Curtiss’ biplane with its 60 horse power 
motor. The Farman machine or the model 
in which he made the world’s duration rec¬ 
ord in his three hour and sixteen minutes 
flight at Rheims, is one of the best as well 


FLYING MACHINES 


19 


as the cheapest of the French makes. 
Without the motor it cost but $1,200. It 
has a surface twenty-five meters square, is 
eight meters long and seven-and-a-half 
meters wide, weighs 140 kilos, and has a 
motor which develops from 25 to 50 horse 
power. 

The Wright machines cost $6,000. 
They have four cylinder motors of 30 
horse power, are 12J meters long, 9 meters 
wide and have a surface of 30 square me¬ 
ters. They weigh 400 kilos. In this 
country they cost $7,500 exclusive of the 
duty on foreign manufacture. 

The impetus being given to aviation at 
the present time by the prizes offered is 
spurring the men-birds to their best efforts. 

It is prophesied that the aeroplane will 
yet attain a speed of 300 miles an hour. 
The quickest travel yet attained by man has 
been at the rate of 127 miles an hour. That 
was accomplished by Marriott in a racing 
automobile at Ormond Beach in 1906, 
when he went one mile in 28 1-5 seconds. 
It is doubtful, however, were it possible 
to achieve a rate of 300 miles an hour, that 
any human being could resist the air pres¬ 
sure at such a velocity. 

At any rate there can be no question as 
to the aeroplane attaining a much greater 
speed than at present. That it will be use¬ 
ful there can be little doubt. It is no longer 




20 


FLYING MACHINES 


a scientific toy in the hands of amateurs, but 
a practical machine which is bound to con¬ 
tribute much to the progress of the world. 
Of course, as a mode of transportation it is 
not in the same class with the dirigible, but 
it can be made to serve many other pur¬ 
poses. As an agent in time of war it 
would be more important than fort or war¬ 
ship. 

The experiments of Curtiss, made a short 
time ago over Lake Keuka at Hammonds- 
port, N. Y., prove what a mighty factor 
would have to be reckoned with in the mar¬ 
tial aeroplane. Curtiss without any prac¬ 
tice at all hit a mimic battle ship fifteen 
times out of twenty-two shots. His experi¬ 
ment has convinced the military and naval 
authorities of this country that the aero¬ 
plane and the aerial torpedo constitute a 
new danger against which there is no ex¬ 
isting protection. Aerial offensive and de¬ 
fensive strategy is now a problem which 
demands the attention of nations. 


CHAPTER II 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

Primitive Signalling—Principles of Wire¬ 
less Telegraphy—Ether Vibrations— 

Wireless Apparatus—The Marconi Sys¬ 
tem. 

At a very early stage in the world’s his¬ 
tory, man found it necessary to be able to 
communicate with places at a distance by 
means of signals. Fire was the first agent 
employed for the purpose. On hill-tops or 
other eminences, what were known as bea¬ 
con fires were kindled and owing to their 
elevation these could be seen for a consid¬ 
erable distance throughout the surrounding 
country. These primitive signals could be 
passed on from one point to another, until 
a large region could be covered and many 
people brought into communication with 
one another These fires expressed a lan¬ 
guage of their own, which the observers 
could readily interpret. For a long time 
they were the only method used for sig¬ 
nalling. Indeed in many backward local¬ 
ities and in some of the outlying islands 

2i 


22 WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

and among savage tribes the custom still 
prevails. The bushmen of Australia at 
night time build fires outside their huts or 
kraals to attract the attention of their fol¬ 
lowers. 

Even in enlightened Ireland the kindling 
of beacon fires is still observed among the 
people of backward districts especially on 
May Eve and the festival of mid-summer. 
On these occasions bonfires are lit on almost 
every hillside throughout that country. 
This custom has been handed down from 
the days of the Druids. 

For a long time fires continued to be the 
mode of signalling, but as this way could 
only be used in the night, it was found nec¬ 
essary to adopt some method that would 
answer the purpose in daytime; hence sig¬ 
nal towers were erected from which flags 
were waved and various devices displayed. 
Flags answered the purposes so very well 
that they came into general use. In course 
of time they were adopted by the army, 
navy and merchant marine and a regular 
code established, as at the present time. 

The railroad introduced the semaphore 
as a signal, and field tactics the heliograph 
or reflecting mirror which, however, is only 
of service when there is a strong sunlight. 

Then came the electric telegraph which 
not only revolutionized all forms of signal¬ 
ling but almost annihilated distance. Mes- 






WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 23 

sages and all sorts of communications could 
be flashed over the wires in a few minutes 
and when a cable was laid under the ocean, 
continent could converse with continent as 
if they were next door neighbors. 

The men who first enabled us to talk 
over a wire certainly deserve our gratitude, 
all succeeding generations are their debtors. 
To the man who enabled us to talk to long 
distances without a wire at all it would seem 
we owe a still greater debt. But who is 
this man around whose brow we should 
twine the laurel wreath, to the altar of 
whose genius we should carry frankincense 
and myrrh? 

This is a question which does not admit 
of an answer, for to no one man alone do 
we owe wireless telegraphy, though Hertz 
was the first to discover the waves which 
make it possible. However, it is to the 
men whose indefatigable labors and genius 
made the electric telegraph a reality, that 
we also owe wireless telegraphy as we have 
it at present, for the latter may be consid¬ 
ered in many respects the resultant of the 
former, though both are different in 
medium. 

Radio or wireless telegraphy in principle 
is as old as mankind. Adam delivered the 
first wireless when on awakening in the 
Garden of Eden he discovered Eve and 
addressed her in the vernacular of Paradise 





24 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 


in that famous sentence which translated 
in English reads both ways the same,—- 
“ Madam, I’m Adam.” The oral words is¬ 
suing from his lips created a sound wave 
which the medium of the air conveyed to 
the tympanum of the partner of his joys 
and the cause of his sorrows. 

When one person speaks to another the 
speaker causes certain vibrations in the air 
and these so stimulate the hearing appara¬ 
tus that a series of nerve impulses are con¬ 
veyed to the sensorium where the meaning 
of these signals is unconsciously inter¬ 
preted. 

In wireless telegraphy the sender causes 
vibrations not in the air but in that all- 
pervading impalpable substance which fills 
all space and which we call the ether. These 
vibrations can reach out to a great distance 
and are capable of so affecting a receiving 
apparatus that signals are made, the move¬ 
ments of which can be interpreted into a 
distinct meaning and consequently into the 
messages of language. 

Let us briefly consider the underlying 
principles at work. When we cast a stone 
into a pool of water we observe that it pro 
duces a series of ripples which grow fain+ 
and fainter the farther they recede fr. 
the centre, the initial point of the disturb¬ 
ance, until they fade altogether in the sur¬ 
rounding expanse of water. The succession 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 25 

of these ripples is what is known as wave 
motion. 

When the clapper strikes the lip of a 
bell it produces a sound and sends a tremor 
out upon the air. The vibrations thus made 
are air waves. 

In the first of these cases the medium 
communicating the ripple or wavelet is the 
water. In the second case the medium 
which sustains the tremor and communi¬ 
cates the vibrations is the air. 

Let us now take the case of a third me¬ 
dium, the substance of which puzzled the 
philosophers of ancient time and still con¬ 
tinues to puzzle the scientists of the pres¬ 
ent. This is the ether, that attenuated fluid 
which fills all inter-stellar space and all 
space in masses and between molecules 
and atoms not otherwise occupied by gross 
matter. When a lamp is lit the light radi¬ 
ates from it in all directions in a wave 
motion. That which transmits the light, 
the medium, is ether. By this means en¬ 
ergy is conveyed from the sun to the earth, 
and scientists have calculated the speed of 
the ether vibrations called light at 186,400 
miles per second. Thus a beam of light 
can travel from the sun to the earth, a dis¬ 
tance of between 92,000,000 and 95,000,- 
000 miles (according to season), in a little 
over eight minutes. 

The fire messages sent by the ancients 








26 WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

from hill to hill were ether vibrations. The 
greater the fires, the greater were the vi¬ 
brations and consequently they carried 
farther to the receiver, which was the eye. 
If a signal is to be sent a great distance by 
light the source of that light must be cor¬ 
respondingly powerful in order to disturb 
the ether sufficiently. The same principle 
holds good in wireless telegraphy. If we 
wish to communicate to a great distance 
the ether must be disturbed in proportion 
to the distance. The vibrations that pro¬ 
duce light are not sufficient in intensity to 
affect the ether in such a way that signals 
can be carried to a distance. Other dis¬ 
turbances, however, can be made in the 
ether, stronger than those which create 
light. If we charge a wire with an electric 
current and place a magnetic needle near 
it we find it moves the needle from one 
position to another. This effect is called 1 
an electro-magnetic disturbance in the 
ether. Again when we charge an insu¬ 
lated body with electricity we find that it 
attracts any light substance indicating a 
material disturbance in the ether. This is 
described as an electro-static disturbance 
or effect and it is upon this that wireless 
telegraphy depends for its operations. 

The late German physicist, Dr. Heinrich 
Hertz, Ph. D., was the first to detect elec¬ 
trical waves in the ether. He set up the 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY <21 

waves in the ether by means of an elec¬ 
trical discharge from an induction coil. To 
do this he employed a very simple means. 
He procured a short length of wire with 
a brass knob at either end and bent around 
so as to form an almost complete circle 
leaving only a small air gap between the 
knobs. Each time there was a spark dis¬ 
charge from the induction coil, the experi¬ 
menter found that a small electric spark 
also generated between the knobs of the 
wire loop, thus showing that electric waves 
were projected through the ether. This 
discovery suggested to scientists that such 
electric waves might be used as a means 
of transmitting signals to a distance 
through the medium of the ether without 
connecting wires. 

When Hertz discovered that electric 
waves crossed space he unconsciously be¬ 
came the father of the modern system of 
radio-telegraphy, and though he did not 
live to put or see any practical results from 
his wonderful discovery, to him in a large 
measure should be accorded the honor of 
blazoning the way for many of the intellect¬ 
ual giants who came after him. Of course 
those who went before him, who discovered 
the principles of the electric telegraph made 
it possible for the Hertzian waves to be 
utilized in wireless. 

It is easy to understand the wonders of 









58 WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

wireless telegraphy when we consider that 
electric waves transverse space in exactly 
the same manner as light waves. When 
energy is transmitted with finite velocity 
we can think of its transference only in 
two ways: first by the actual transference 
of matter as when a stone is hurled from 
one place to another; second, by the prop¬ 
agation of energy from point to point 
through a medium which fills the space be¬ 
tween two bodies. The body sending out 
energy disturbs the medium contiguous to 
it, which disturbance is communicated to 
adjacent parts of the medium and so the 
movement is propagated outward from the 
sending body through the medium until 
some other body is affected. 

A vibrating body sets up vibrations in 
another body, as for instance, when one 
tuning fork responds to the vibrations of 
another when both have the same note or 
are in tune. 

The transmission of messages by wireless 
telegraphy is effected in a similar way. The 
apparatus at the sending station sends out 
waves of a certain period through the ether 
and these waves are detected at the re¬ 
ceiving station by apparatus attuned to 
this wave length or period. 

The term electric radiation was first em¬ 
ployed by Hertz to designate waves emitted 
by a Leyden jar or oscillator system of an 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 29 

induction coil, but since that time these 
radiations have been known as Hertzian 
waves. These waves are the underlying 
principles in wireless telegraphy 

It was found that certain metal filings 
offered great resistance to the passage of 
an electric current through them but that 
this resistance was very materially reduced 
when electric waves fell upon the filings 
and remained so until the filings were 
shaken, thus giving time for the fact to 
be observed in an ordinary telegraphic in¬ 
strument. 

The tube of filings through which the 
electric current is made to pass in wireless 
telegraphy is called a coherer signifying 
that the filings cohere or cling together un¬ 
der the influence of the electric waves. Al¬ 
most any metal will do for the filings but it 
is found that a combination of ninety per 
cent, nickel and ten per cent, silver answers 
the purpose best. 

The tube of the coherer is generally of 
glass but any insulating substance will do; 
a wire enters at each end and is attached 
to little blocks of metal which are separated 
by a very small space. It is into this space 
the filings are loosely filled. 

Another form of coherer consists of a 
glass tube with small carbon blocks or plugs 
attached to the ends of the wires and in¬ 
stead of the metal filings there is a globule 













so 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 


of mercury between the plugs. When 
electric waves fall upon this coherer, the 
mercury coheres to the carbon blocks, and 
thus forms a bridge for the battery cur¬ 
rent. 

Marconi and several others have from 
time to time invented many other kinds of 
detectors for the electrical waves. Nearly 
all have to serve the same purpose, viz., to 
close a local battery circuit when the elec¬ 
tric waves fall upon the detector. 

There are other inventions on which the 
action is the reverse. These are called anti¬ 
coherers. One of the best known of these 
is a tube arranged in a somewhat similar 
manner to the filings tube but with two 
small blocks of tin, between which is placed 
a paste made up of alcohol, tin filings and 
lead oxide. In its normal state the paste 
allows the battery current to get across 
from one block to another, but when elec¬ 
tric waves touch it a chemical action is 
produced which immediately breaks down 
the bridge and stops the electric waves, the 
paste resumes its normal condition and 
allows the battery current to pass again. 
Therefore by this arrangement the signals 
are made by a sudden breaking and making 
of the battery circuit. 

Then there is the magnetic detector. 
This is not so easy of explanation. When 
we take a piece of soft iron and continu- 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 31 

ously revolve it in front of a permanent 
magnet, the magnetic poles of the soft iron 
piece will keep changing their position at 
each half revolution. It requires a little 
time to effect this magnetic change which 
makes it appear as if a certain amount of 
resistance was being made against it. (If 
electric waves are allowed to fall upon the 
iron, resistance is completely eliminated, 
and the magnetic poles can change places 
instantly as it revolves.) 

From this we see that if we have a 
quickly changing magnetic field it will in¬ 
duce or set up an electric current in a 
neighboring coil of wire. In this way we 
can detect the changes in the magnetic 
field, for we can place a telephone receiver 
in connection with the coil of wire. 

In a modern wireless receiver of this 
kind it is found more convenient to replace 
the revolving iron piece by an endless band 
of soft iron wire. This band is kept passing 
in front of a permanent magnet, the mag¬ 
netism of the wire tending to change 
as it passes from one pole to the other. 
This change takes place suddenly when the 
electric waves form the transmitting sta¬ 
tion, fall upon the receiving aerial con¬ 
ductor and are conducted round the mov¬ 
ing wire, and as the band is passing through 
a coil of insulated wire attached to a tele¬ 
phone receiver, this sudden change in the 




33 WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

magnetic field induces an electric current 
in the surrounding coil and the operator 
hears a sound in the telephone at his ear. 
The Morse code may thus be signalled 
from the distant transmitter. 

There are various systems of wireless 
telegraphy for the most part called after 
the scientists who developed or perfected 
them. Probably the foremost as well as 
the best known is that which bears the 
name of Marconi A popular fallacy makes 
Marconi the discoverer of the wireless 
method. Marconi was the first to put the 
system on a commercial footing or business 
basis and to lead the way for its coming to 
the front as a mighty factor in modern pro¬ 
gress. Of course, also, the honor of several 
useful inventions and additions to wireless 
apparatus must be given him. He started 
experimenting as far back as 1895 when 
but a mere boy. In the beginning he em¬ 
ployed the induction coil, Morse telegraph 
key,batteries, and vertical wire for the trans¬ 
mission of signals, and for their reception 
the usual filings coherer of nickel with a 
very small percentage of silver, a telegraph 
relay, batteries and a vertical wire. In the 
Marconi system of the present time there 
are many forms of coherers, also the mag¬ 
netic detector and other variations of the 
original apparatus. Other systems more 
or less prominent are the Lodge-Muirhead 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 33 

of England, Braun-Siemens of Germany 
and those of DeForest and Fessenden of 
America. The electrolytic detector with the 
paste beween the tin blocks belongs to the 
system of DeForest. Besides these the 
names of Popoff, Jackson, Armstrong, Or- 
ling, Lepel, and Poulsen stand high in the 
wireless world. 

A serious drawback to the operations of 
wireless lies in the fact that the stations 
are liable to get mixed up and some one 
intercept the messages intended for an¬ 
other, but this is being overcome by the 
adoption of a special system of wave 
lengths for the different wireless stations 
and by the use of improved apparatus. 

In the early days it was quite a common 
occurrence for the receivers of one system 
to reply to the transmitters of a rival sys¬ 
tem. There was an all-round mix-up and 
consequently the efficiency of wireless for 
practical purposes was for a good while 
looked upon with more or less suspicion. 
But as knowledge of wave motions devel¬ 
oped and the laws of governing them 
were better understood, the receiver 
was “ tuned ” to respond to the trans¬ 
mitter, that is, the transmitter was made 
to set up a definite rate of vibrations in the 
ether and the receiver made to respond to 
this rate, just like two tuning forks sound¬ 
ing the same note. 






34 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 


In order to set up as energetic electric 
waves as possible many methods have been 
devised at the transmitting stations. In 
some methods a wire is attached to one of 
the two metal spheres between which the 
electric charge takes place and is carried 
up into the air for a great height, while to 
the second sphere another wire is connected 
and which leads into the earth Another 
method is to support a regular network of 
wires from strong steel towers built to a 
height of two hundred feet or more. 

Long distance transmission by wireless 
was only made possible by grounding one 
of the conductors in the transmitter. The 
Hertzian waves were provided without any 
earth connection and radiated into space 
in all directions, rapidly losing force like the 
disappearing ripples on a pond, whereas 
those set up by a grounded transmitter with 
the receiving instrument similarly con¬ 
nected to earth, keep within the immediate 
neighborhood of the earth. 

For instance up to about two hundred 
miles a storage battery and induction coil 
are sufficient to produce the necessary ether 
disturbance, but when a greater distance 
is to be spanned an engine and a dynamo 
are necessary to supply energy for the 
electric waves. 

In the most recent Marconi transmitter 
the current produced is no longer in the 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 


35 


form of intermittent sparks, but is a true 
alternating current, which in general con¬ 
tinues uniformly as long as the key is 
pressed down. 

There is no longer any question that 
wireless telegraphy is here to stay. It has 
passed the juvenile stage and is fast ap¬ 
proaching a lusty adolescence which prom¬ 
ises to be a source of great strength to the 
commerce of the world. Already it has 
accomplished much for its age. It has 
saved so many lives at sea that its installa¬ 
tion is no longer regarded as a scientific 
luxury but a practical necessity on every 
passenger vessel. Practically every steamer 
in American waters is equipped with a wire¬ 
less station. Even freight boats and tugs 
are up-to-date in this respect. Every ship 
in the Amer ican navy, including colliers and 
revenue cutters, carries wireless operators. 
So important indeed is it considered in the 
Navy department that a line of shore sta¬ 
tions have been constructed from Maine 
on the Atlantic to Alaska on the Pacific. 

In a remarkably short interval wireless 
has come to exercise an important function 
in the marine service. Through the shore 
stations of the commercial companies, press 
despatches, storm warnings, weather re¬ 
ports and other items of interest are regu¬ 
larly transmitted to ships at sea. Captains 
keep in touch with one another and with 







36 WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 

the home office; wrecks, derelicts and 
storms are reported. Every operator sends 
out regular reports daily, so that the home 
office can tell the exact position of the 
vessel. If she is too far from land on the 
one side to be reached by wireless she is 
near enough on the other to come within 
the sphere of its operations. 

Weather has no effect on wireless, there¬ 
fore the question of meteorology does not 
come into consideration. Fogs, rains, tor¬ 
rents, tempests, snowstorms, winds, thun¬ 
der, lightning or any aerial disturbance 
whatsoever cannot militate against the 
sending or receiving of wireless messages 
as the ether permeates them all. 

Submarine and land telegraphy used to 
look on wireless, the youngest sister, as the 
Cinderella of their name, but she has sur¬ 
passed both and captured the honors of the 
family. 

It was in 1898 that Marconi made his 
first remarkable success in sending mes¬ 
sages from England to France. The Eng¬ 
lish station was at South Foreland and the 
French near Boulogne. The distance was 
thirty-two miles across the British channel. 
This telegraphic communication without 
wires was considered a wonderful feat at 
the time and excited much interest. 

During the following year Marconi had 
t so much improved his first apparatus that 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ST 

he was able to send out waves detected by 
receivers up to the one hundred mile limit. 

In 1900 communication was established 
between the Isle of Wight and the Lizard 
in Cornwall, a distance of two hundred 
miles. 

Up to this time the only appliances em¬ 
ployed were induction coils giving a ten 
or twenty inch spark. Marconi and others 
perceived the necessity of employing 
greater force to penetrate the ether in order 
to generate stronger electrical waves. Oil 
and steam engines and other appliances 
were called into use to create high fre¬ 
quency currents and those necessitated the 
erection of large power stations. Several 
were erected at advantageous points and 
the wireless system was fairly established 
as a new agent of communication. 

In December, 1901, at St. John’s, New¬ 
foundland, Marconi by means of kites and 
balloons set up a temporary aerial wire in 
the hope of being able to receive a signal 
from the English station in Cornwall. He 
had made an arrangement with Poldhu 
station that on a certain date and at a fixed 
hour they should attempt the signal. The 
letter S, which in the Morse code consists 
of three successive dots, was chosen. Mar¬ 
coni feverishly awaited results. True 
enough on the day and at the time agreed 
upon the three dots were clicked off,—the 












38 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 


first signal from Europe to the American 
continent. Marconi with much difficulty 
set up other aerial wires and indubitably 
established the fact that it was possible to 
send electric waves across the Atlantic. 
He found, however, that waves in order to 
traverse three thousand miles and retain 
sufficient energy on their arrival to affect 
a telephonic wave-detecting device must 
be generated by no inordinate power. 

These experiments proved that if stations 
were erected of sufficient pow r er transat¬ 
lantic wireless could be successfully car¬ 
ried on. They gave an impetus to the 
erection of such stations. 

On December 21, 1902, from a station at 
Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Marconi sent the 
first message by wireless to England an¬ 
nouncing success to his colleagues. 

The following January from Wellsfleet, 
Cape Cod, President Roosevelt sent a con¬ 
gratulatory message to King Edward. The 
electric waves conveying this message trav¬ 
eled 3,000 miles over the Atlantic following 
round an arc of forty-five degrees of the 
earth on a great circle, and were received 
telephonically, by the Marconi magnetic 
receiver at Poldhu. 

Most ships are provided with syntonic 
receivers which are tuned to long distance 
transmitters, and are capable of receiving 
messages up to distances of 3,000 miles or 


WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY 


30 


more. Wireless communication between 
Europe and America is no longer a possi¬ 
bility but an accomplishment, though as 
yet the system has not been put on a gen¬ 
eral business basis.* 

* As we go to press a new record has been 
established in wireless transmission. Marconi, in 
the Argentine Republic, near Buenos Ayres, has 
received messages from the station at Clifden, 
County Galway, Ireland, a distance of 5,600 miles. 
The best previous record was made when the 
United States battleship Tennessee in 1909 picked 
up a message from San Francisco when 4,580 
miles distant. 











CHAPTER III 


RADIUM 

Experiments of Becquerel—Work of the 
Curies—Discovery of Radium—Enor¬ 
mous Energy—Various Uses. 

Early in 1896 just a few months after 
Roentgen had startled the scientific world 
by the announcement of the discovery of 
the X-rays, Professor Henri Becquerel of 
the Natural History Museum in Paris an¬ 
nounced another discovery which, if not as 
mysterious, was more puzzling and still 
continues a puzzle to a great degree to the 
present time. Studying the action of the 
salts of a rare and very heavy mineral 
called uranium Becquerel observed that 
their substances give off an invisible radia¬ 
tion which, like the Roentgen rays, traverse 
metals and other bodies opaque to light, 
as well as glass and other transparent sub¬ 
stances. Like most of the great discoveries 
it was the result of accident. Becquerel 
had no idea of such radiations, had never 
thought of their possibility. 

40 




RADIUM 


41 


In the early days of the Roentgen rays 
there were many facts which suggested 
that phosphorescence had something to do 
with the production of these rays It then 
occurred to several French physicists that 
X-rays might be produced if phosphores¬ 
cent substances were exposed to sunlight. 
Becquerel began to experiment with a 
view to testing this supposition. He placed 
uranium, on a photographic plate which 
had first been wrapped in black paper in 
order to screen it from the light. After 
this plate had remained in the bright sun¬ 
light for several hours it was removed from 
the paper covering and developed. A slight 
trace of photographic action was found at 
those parts of the plate directly beneath 
the uranium just as Becquerel had ex¬ 
pected. From this it appeared evident that 
rays of some kind were being produced 
that were capable of passing through black 
paper. Since the X-rays were then the 
only ones known to possess the power to 
penetrate opaque substances it seemed as 
though the problem of producing X-rays 
by sunlight was solved. Then came the 
fortunate accident. After several plates 
had been prepared for exposure to sunlight 
a severe storm arose and the experiments 
had to be abandoned for the time being. At 
the end of several days work was again 
resumed, but the plates had been lying so 



42 


-RADIUM 


long in the darkroom that they were 
deemed almost valueless and it was 
thought that there would not be much use 
in trying to use them. Becquerel was 
about to throw them away, but on second 
consideration thinking that some action 
might have possibly taken place in the 
dark, he resolved to try them. He devel¬ 
oped them and the result was that he ob¬ 
tained better pictures than ever before. The 
exposure to sunlight which had been re¬ 
garded as essential to the success of the 
former experiments had really nothing at 
all to do with the matter, the essential thing 
was the presence of uranium and the pho¬ 
tographic effects were not due to X-rays 
but to the rays or emanations which Bec¬ 
querel had thus discovered and which bear 
his name. 

There were many tedious and difficult 
steps to take before even our present 
knowledge, incomplete as it is, could be 
reached. However, Becquerel’s fortunate 
accident of the plate developing was the 
beginning of the long series of experiments 
which led to the discovery of radium which 
already has revolutionized some of the 
most fundamental conceptions of physics 
and chemistry. 

It is remarkable that we owe the dis¬ 
covery of this wonderful element to a 
woman, Mme. Sklodowska Curie, the wife 
of a French professor and physicist. Mme. 




RADIUM 43 

Curie began her work in 1897 with a sys¬ 
tematic study of several minerals containing 
uranium and thorium and soon discovered 
the remarkable fact that there was some 
agent present more strongly radio-active 
than the metal uranium itself. She set 
herself the task of finding out this agent 
and in conjunction with her husband, Pro¬ 
fessor Pierre Curie, made many tests and 
experiments. Finally in the ore of pitch- 
bende they found not only one but three 
substances highly radio-active. Pitchblende 
or uraninite is an intensely black mineral 
of a specific gravity of 9.5 and is found in 
commercial quantities in Bohemia, Corn¬ 
wall in England and some other localities. 
It contains lead sulphide, lime silica, and 
other bodies. 

To the radio-active substance which ac¬ 
companied the bismuth extracted from 
pitchblende the Curies gave the name Po¬ 
lonium. To that which accompanied bar¬ 
ium taken from the same ore they called 
Radium and to the substance which was 
found among the rare earths of the pitch¬ 
blende Debierne gave the name Actinium. 

None of these elements have been iso¬ 
lated, that is to say, separated in a pure 
state from the accompanying ore. There¬ 
fore, pure radium is a misnomer, though 
we often hear the term used.* 


* Since the above was written Madame Curie 














44 


RADIUM 


All that has been obtained is some one of its 
simpler salts or compounds and until re¬ 
cently even these had not been prepared in 
pure form. The commonest form of the 
element, which in itself is very far from 
common, is what is known to chemistry as 
chloride of radium which is a combination 
of chlorin and radium. This is a grayish 
white powder, somewhat like ordinary 
coarse table salt. To get enough to weigh 
a single grain requires the treatment of 
1,200 pounds of pitchblende. 

The second form of radium is as a bro¬ 
mide In this form it costs $5,000 a grain 
and could a pound be obtained its value 
would be three-and-a-half millipn dollars. 

Radium, as we understand it in any of 
its compounds, can communicate its prop¬ 
erty of radio-activity to other bodies. Any 
material when placed near radium becomes 
radio-active and retains such activity for 
a considerable time after being removed. 
Even the human body takes on this excited 
activity and this sometimes leads to annoy¬ 
ances as in delicate experiments the results 

has announced to the Paris Academy of Sciences 
that she has succeeded in obtaining pure radium. 
In conjunction with Professor Debierne she 
treated a decegramme of bromide of radium by 
electrolytic process, getting an amalgam from 
which was extracted the metallic radium by dis¬ 
tillation. 


RADIUM 


45 


may be nullified by the element acting upon 
the experimenter’s person. 

Despite the enormous amount of energy 
given off by radium it seems not to change 
in itself, there is no appreciable loss in 
weight nor apparently any microscopic or 
chemical change in the original body. Pro¬ 
fessor Becquerel has stated that if a square 
centimeter of surface was covered by chem¬ 
ically pure radium it would lose but one 
thousandth of a milligram in weight in a 
million years’ time. 

Radium is a body which gives out energy 
continuously and spontaneously. This liber¬ 
ation of energy is manifested in the differ¬ 
ent effects of its radiation and emanation, 
and especially in the development of heat. 
Now, according to the most fundamental 
principles of modern science, the universe 
contains a certain definite provision of 
energy which can appear under various 
forms, but which cannot be increased. Ac-' 
cording to Sir Oliver Lodge every cubic 
millimeter of ether contains as much energy 
as would be developed by a million horse 
power station working continuously far 
forty thousand years. This assertion is 
probaNy based on the fact that every cor¬ 
puscle in the ether vibrates with the speed 
of light or about 186,000 miles a second. 

It was formerly believed that the atom 
was the smallest sub-division in nature. 




46 


RADIUM 


Scientists held to the atomic theory for a 
long time, but at last it has been exploded, 
and instead of the atom being primary and 
indivisible we find it a very complex affair, 
a kind of miniature solar system, the centre 
of a varied attraction of molecules, cor¬ 
puscles and electrons. Had we held to the 
atomic theory and denied smaller sub-di- 
visions of matter there would be no ac¬ 
counting for the emissions of radium, for 
as science now believes these emissions are 
merely the expulsion of millions of elec¬ 
trons. 

Radium gives off three distinct types of 
rays named after the first three letters of 
the Greek alphabet—Alpha, Beta, Gamma 
—besides a gas emanation as does thorium 
which is a powerfully radio-active sub¬ 
stance. The Alpha rays constitute ninety- 
nine per cent, of all the rays and consist 
of positively electrified particles. Under 
•the influence of magnetism they can be de¬ 
flected. They have little penetrative power 
and are readily absorbed in passing through 
a sheet of paper or through a few inches 
of air. 

The Beta rays consist of negatively 
charged particles or corpuscles approxi¬ 
mately one thousandth the size of those 
constituting the Alpha rays. They resem¬ 
ble cathode rays produced by an electrical 
discharge inside of a highly exhausted 


RADIUM 


47 


vacuum tube but work at a much higher 
velocity; they can be readily deflected by 
a magnet; they discharge electrified bod¬ 
ies, affect photographic plates, stimulate 

I strongly phosphorescent bodies and are of 
high penetrative power. 

The radiations are a million times more 
powerful than those of uranium. They 
have many curious properties. 

If a photographic plate is placed in the 
vicinity of radium it is almost instantly 
affected if no screen intercepts the rays; 
with a screen the action is slower, but it 
still takes place even through thick folds, 
therefore, radiographs can be taken and 
in this way it is being utilized by surgery 
to view the anatomy, the internal organs, 
and locate bullets and other foreign sub¬ 
stances in the system. 

A glass vessel containing radium spon¬ 
taneously charges itself with electricity. 
If the glass has a weak spot, a scratch say, 
an electric spark is produced at that point 
and the vessel crumbles, just like a Leyden 
jar when overcharged. 

Radium liberates heat spontaneously and 
continuously. A solid salt of radium de¬ 
velops such an amount of heat that to every 
single gram there is an emission of one 
hundred calories per hour, in other words, 
radium can melt its weight in ice in the 
time of one hour. 





48 


RADIUM 


As a result of its emission of heat radium 
has always a temperature higher by several 
degrees than its surroundings. 

When a solution of a radium salt is 
placed in a closed vessel the radio-activity 
in part leaves the solution and distributes 
itself through the vessel, the sides of which 
become radio-active and luminous. 

Radium acts upon the chemical constit¬ 
uents of glass, porcelain and paper, giving 
them a violet tinge, changes white phos¬ 
phorous into yellow, oxygen into ozone 
and produces many other curious chemical 
changes. 

We have said that it can serve the surgeon 
in physical examinations of the body after 
the manner of X-rays. It has not, however, 
been much employed in this direction owing 
to its scarcity and prohibitive price. It has 
given excellent results in the treatment of 
certain skin diseases, in cancer, etc. How¬ 
ever it can have very baneful effects on ani¬ 
mal organisms. It has produced paralysis 
and death in dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, guinea- 
pigs and other animals, and undoubtedly 
it might affect human beings in a similar 
way. Professor Curie said that a single 
gram of chemically pure radium would "be 
sufficient to destroy the life of every man, 
woman and child in Paris providing they 
were separately and properly exposed to 
its influence. 


RADIUM 


49 


Radium destroys the germinative power 
of seeds and retards the growth of certain 
forms of life, such as larvae, so that they 
do not pass into the chrysalis and insect 
stages of development, but remain in the 
state of larvae. 

At a certain distance it causes the hair 
of mice to fall out, but on the contrary at 
the same distance it increases the hair or 
fur on rabbits. 

It often produces severe burns on the 
hands and other portions of the body too 
long exposed to its activity. 

It can penetrate through gases, liquids 
and all ordinary solids, even through many 
inches of the hardest steel. On a compara¬ 
tively short exposure it has been known to 
partially paralyze an electric charged bar. 

Heat nor cold do not affect its radio¬ 
activity in the least. It gives off but little 
light, its luminosity being largely due to 
the stimulation of the impurities in the 
radium by the powerful but invisible ra¬ 
dium rays. 

Radium stimulates powerfully various 
mineral and chemical substances near which 
it is placed. It is an infallible test of the 
genuineness of the diamond. The genuine 
diamond phosphoresces strongly when 
brought into juxtaposition, but the paste 
or imitation one glows not at all. 

It is seen that the study of the properties 






50 


RADIUM 


of radium is of great interest. This is true 
also of the two other elements found in 
the ores of uranium and thorium, viz., 
polonium and actinium. Polonium, so- 
called, in honor of the native land of Mme. 
Curie, is just as active as radium when first 
extracted from the pitchblende but its 
energy soon lessens and finally it becomes 
inert, hence there has been little experi¬ 
menting or investigation. The same may be 
said of actinium. 

The process of obtaining radium from 
pitchblende is most tedious and laborious 
and requires much patience The residue 
of the pitchblende from which uranium has 
been extracted by fusion with sodium car¬ 
bonate and solution in dilute sulphuric acid, 
contains the radium along with other 
metals, and is boiled with concentrated 
sodium carbonate solution, and the solution 
of the residue in hydrochloric acid precipi¬ 
tated with sulphuric acid. The insoluble 
barium and radium sulphates, after being 
converted into chlorides or bromides, are 
separated by repeated fractional crystalliza¬ 
tion. 

One kilogram of impure radium bromide 
is obtained from a ton of pitchblende resi¬ 
due after processes continued for about 
three months during which time, five tons 
of chemicals and fifty tons of rinsing water 
are used. 


RADIUM 


51 


As has been said the element has never 
been isolated or separated in its metallic or 
pure state and most of the compounds are 
impure. Radium banks have been estab¬ 
lished in London, Paris and New York. 

Whenever radium is employed in surgery 
for an operation about fifty milligrams are 
required at least and the banks let out the 
amount for about $200 a day. If purchased 
the price for this amount would be $4,000. 



CHAPTER IV 


MOVING PICTURES 

Photographing Motion—Edison’s Kineto- 
scope — Lumiere’s Cinematographe —• 
Before the Camera—The Mission of the 
Moving Picture. 

* 

Few can realize the extent of the field 
covered by moving pictures. In the dual 
capacity of entertainment and instruction 
there is not a rival in sight. As an instruc¬ 
tor, science is daily widening the sphere of 
the motion picture for the purpose of illus¬ 
tration. Films are rapidly superseding text 
books in many branches. Every depart¬ 
ment capable of photographic demonstra¬ 
tion is being covered by moving pictures. 
Negatives are now being made of the most 
intricate surgical operations and these are 
teaching the students better than the wit¬ 
nessing of the real operations, for at the 
Critical moment of the operation the picture 
machine can be stopped to let the student 
view over again the way it is accomplished, 
whereas at the operating table the surgeon 
must go on with his work to try to save life 
and cannot explain every step in the process 

52 



MOVING PICTURES 


53 


of the operation. There is no doubt that 
the moving picture machine will perform 
a very important part in the future teach¬ 
ing of surgery. 

In the naturalist’s domain of science it 
is already playing a very important part. A 
device for micro-photography has now been 
perfected in connection with motion 
machines whereby things are magnified to 
a great degree. By this means the analysis 
of a substance can be better illustrated than 
any way else. For instance a drop of water 
looks like a veritable Zoo with terrible 
looking creatures wiggling and wriggling 
through it, and makes one feel as if he 
never wanted to drink water again. 

The moving picture in its general phase 
is entertainment and instruction rolled into 
one and as such it has superseded the thea¬ 
tre. It is estimated that at the present 
time in America there are upwards of 20,- 
000 moving picture shows patronized daily 
by almost ten million people. It is doubtful 
if the theatre attendance at the best day of 
the winter season reaches five millions. 

The moving picture in importance is far 
beyond the puny functions of comedy and 
tragedy, the grotesque farce of vaudeville 
and the tawdry show which only appeals 
to sentiment at highest and often to the 
base passions at lowest. 

Despite prurient opposition it is making 






54 


MOVING PICTURES 


rapid headway. It is entering very largely 
into the instructive and the entertaining de¬ 
partments of the world’s curriculum. Mil¬ 
lions of dollars are annually expended in the 
production of films. Companies of trained 
and practiced actors are brought together 
to enact pantomimes which will concentrate 
within the space of a few minutes the most 
entertaining and instructive incidents of 
history and the leading happenings of the 
world. 

At all great events, no matter where 
transpiring, the different moving picture 
companies have trained men at the front 
ready with their cameras to “ catch ” every 
incident, every movement even to the wink 
of an eyelash, so that the “ stay-at-homes ” 
can see the show as well, and with a great 
deal more comfort than if they had traveled 
hundreds, or even thousands, of miles to be 
present in propria persona. 

How did moving pictures originate? 
What and when were the beginning? It is 
popularly believed that animated pictures 
had their inception with Edison who pro¬ 
jected the biograph in 1887, having based it 
on that wonderful and ingenious toy, the 
Zoetrope. Long before 1887, however, sev¬ 
eral men of inventive faculties had turned 
their attention to a means of giving appar¬ 
ent animation to pictures. The first that 
met with any degree of success was Edward 
Mu)^bridge, a photographer of San Fran- 



MOVING PICTURES 


5$ 




i 


cisco. This was in 1878. A revolution had 
been brought about in photography by the 
introduction of the instantaneous process. 
By the use of sensitive films of gelatine bro¬ 
mide of silver emulsion the time required 
for the action of ordinary daylight in pro¬ 
ducing a photograph had been reduced to 
a very small fraction of a second. Muy¬ 
bridge utilized these films for the photo¬ 
graphic analysis of animal motion. Beside 
a race-track he placed a battery of cameras, 
each camera being provided with a spring 
shutter which was controlled by a thread 
stretched across the track. A running horse 
broke each thread the moment he passed in 
front of the camera and thus twenty or 
thirty pictures of him were taken in close 
succession within one or two seconds of 
time. From the negatives secured in this 
way a series of positives were obtained in 
proper order on a strip of sensitized paper. 
The strip when examined by means of the 
Zoetrope furnished a reproduction of the 
horse’s movements. 

The Zoetrope was a toy familiar to chil¬ 
dren ; it was sometimes called the wheel of 
life. It was a contrivance consisting of a 
cylinder some ten inches wide, open at the 
top, around the lower and interior rim of 
which a series of related pictures were 
placed. The cylinder was then rapidly 
rotated and the spectator looking through 
the vertical narrow slits on its outer sur- 








56 


MOVING PICTURES 


face, could fancy that the pictures inside 
were moving. 

Muybridge devised an instrument which 
he called a Zoopraxiscope for the optical 
projection of his zoetrope photographs. 
The succession of positives was arranged 
in proper order upon a glass disk about 18 
inches in diameter near its circumference. 
This disk was mounted conveniently for 
rapid revolution so that each picture would 
pass in front of the condenser of an optical 
lantern. The difficulties involved in the 
preparation of the disk pictures and in the 
manipulation of the zoopraxiscope pre¬ 
vented the instrument from attracting much 
attention. However, artistically speaking, 
it was the forerunner of the numerous 
“ graphs ” and “ scopes ” and moving pic¬ 
ture machines of the present day. 

It was in 1887 that Edison conceived an 
idea of associating with his phonograph, 
which had then achieved a marked success, 
an instrument which would reproduce to 
the eye the effect of motion by means of a 
swift and graded succession of pictures, so 
that the reproduction of articulate sounds 
as in the phonograph, would be accompan¬ 
ied by the reproduction of the motion nat¬ 
urally associated with them. 

The principle of the instrument was sug¬ 
gested to Edison by the zoetrope, and of 
course, he well knew what Muybridge had 


MOVING PICTURES 


57 


accomplished in the line of motion pictures 
of animals almost ten years previously. 
Edison, however, did not employ a battery 
of cameras as Muybridge had done, but 
devised a special form of camera in which 
a long strip of sensitized film was moved 
rapidly behind a lens provided with a shut¬ 
ter, and so arranged as to alternately admit 
and cut off the light from the moving 
object. He adjusted the mechanism so that 
there were 46 exposures a second, the film 
remaining stationary during the momentary 
time of exposure, after which it was carried 
forward far enough to bring a new surface 
into the proper position. The time of the 
shifting was about one-tenth of that allowed 
for exposure, so that the actual time of 
exposure was about the one-fiftieth of a 
second. The film moved, reckoning stuff¬ 
ings and stoppages for exposures, at an 
average speed of a little more than a foot 
per second, so that a length of film of about 
fifty feet received between 700 and 800 
impressions in a circuit of 40 seconds. 

Edison named his first instrument the 
kinetoscope. It came out in 1893. It was 
hailed with delight at the time and for a 
short period was much in demand, but soon 
new devices came into the field and the 
kinetoscope was superseded by other 
machines bearing similar names 1 with a 
like signification. 






58 


MOVING PICTURES 


A variety of cameras was invented. One 
consisted of a film-feeding mechanism 
which moves the film step by step in the 
focus of a single lens, the duration of expos¬ 
ure being from twenty to twenty-five times 
as great as that necessary to move an unex¬ 
posed portion of the film into position. No 
shutter was employed. As time passed 
many other improvements were made. An 
ingenious Frenchman named Lumiere, came 
forward with his Cinematographe which 
for a few years gave good satisfaction, pro¬ 
ducing very creditable results. Success, 
however, was due more to the picture rib¬ 
bons than to the mechanism employed to 
feed them. 

Of other moving pictures machines we 
have had the vitascope, vitagraph, mag- 
niscope, mutoscope, panoramagraph, theat- 
ograph and scores of others all derived from 
the two Greek roots grapho I write and 
scopco I view. 

The vitascope is the principal name now 
in use for moving picture machines. In 
all these instruments in order that the film 
projection may be visible to an audience it 
is necessary to have a very intense light. 
A. source of such light is found in the elec¬ 
tric focusing lamp. At or near the focal 
point of the projecting lantern condenser 
the film is made to travel across the field 
as in the kinetoscope. A water cell in front 


MOVING PICTURES 


59 


of the condenser absorbs most of the heat 
and transmits most of the light from the arc 
lamp, and the small picture thus highly 
illuminated is protected from injury. A 
projecting lens of rather short focus throws 
a large image of each picture on the screen, 
and the rapid succession of these completes 
the illusion of life-like motion. 

Hundreds of patents have been made on 
cameras, projecting lenses and machines 
from the days of the kinetoscope to the 
present time when clear-cut moving pic¬ 
tures portray life so closely and so well as 
almost to deceive the eye. In fact in many 
cases the counterfeit is taken for the reality 
and audiences as much aroused as if they 
were looking upon a scene of actual life. 
We can well believe the story of the Irish¬ 
man, who on seeing the stage villain abduct 
the young lady, made a rush at the canvas 
yelling out,—“ Let me at the blackguard 
and I’ll murder him.” 

Though but fifteen years old the moving 
picture industry has sent out its branches 
into all civilized lands and is giving employ¬ 
ment to an army of thousands. It would 
be hard to tell how many mimic actors and 
actresses make a living by posing for the 
camera; their name is legion. Among them 
are many professionals who receive as good 
a salary as on the stage. 

Some of the large concerns both in 




60 


MOVING PICTURES 


Europe and America at times employ from 
one hundred to two hundred hands and 
even more to illustrate some of the produc¬ 
tions. They send their photographers and 
actors all over the world for settings. Most 
of the business, however, is done near 
home. With trapping and other parapher¬ 
nalia a stage setting can be effected to 
simulate almost any scene. 

Almost anything under the sun can be 
enacted in a moving picture studio, from 
the drowning of a cat to the hanging of a 
snan; a horse race or fire alarm is not 
outside the possible and the aviator has been 
depicted “ flying ” high in the heavens. 

The places where the pictures are pre¬ 
pared must be adapted for the purpose. 
They are called studios and have glass roofs 
and in most of them a good section of the 
walls are also glass. The floor space is 
divided into sections for the setting or 
staging of different productions, therefore 
several representations can take place at 
the same time before the eyes of the cam¬ 
eras. There are “properties ” of all kinds 
from the ragged garments of the beggar to 
kingly ermine and queenly silks. Paste dia¬ 
monds sparkle in necklaces, crowns and 
tiaras, seeming to rival the scintillations of 
the Kohinoor. 

At the first, objections were made to 
moving pictures on the ground that in 


MOVING PICTURES 


61 


many cases they had a tendency to cater to 
the lower instincts, that subjects were illus¬ 
trated which were repugnant to the finer 
feelings and appealed to the gross and the 
sensual. Burglaries, murders and wild west¬ 
ern scenes in which the villain-heroes tri¬ 
umphed were often shown and no doubt: 
these had somewhat of a pernicious influ¬ 
ence on susceptible youth. But all such 
pictures have for the most part been elim¬ 
inated and there is a strict taboo on any¬ 
thing with a degrading influence or partak¬ 
ing of the brutal. Prize fights are often 
barred. In many large cities there is a 
board of censorship to which the different 
manufacturing firms must submit dupli¬ 
cates. This board has to pass on all the 
films before they are released and if the 
pictures are in any way contrary to morals 
or decency or are in any respect unfit to 
be displayed before the public, they cannot 
be put in circulation. Thus are the people 
protected and especially the youth who 
should be permitted to see nothing that is 
not elevating or not of a nature to inspire 
them with high and noble thoughts and 
with ambitions to make the world better and 
brighter. 

Let us hope that the future mission of 
the moving picture will be along educational 
and moral lines tending to uplift and enno¬ 
ble our boys and girls so that they may 








62 MOVING PICTURES 

develop into a manhood and womanhood 
worthy the history and best traditions of 
our country. 

;js >j< ;); 

The Wizard of Menlo Park has just suc¬ 
ceeded after two years of hard application 
to the experiment in giving us the talking 
picture, a real genuine talking picture, 
wholly independent of the old device of 
having the actors talk behind the screen 
when the films were projected. By a com¬ 
bination of the phonograph and the mov¬ 
ing picture machine working in perfect 
synchronism the result is obtained. Wires 
are attached to the mechanism of both the 
machines, the one behind the screen and 
the one in front, in such a way that the two 
are operated simultaneously so that when a 
film is projected a corresponding record on 
the phonograph acts in perfect unison sup¬ 
plying the voice suitable to the moving ac¬ 
tion. Men and women pass along the can¬ 
vas, act, talk, laugh, cry and “ have their 
being ” just as in real life. Of course, 
they are immaterial, merely the reflection 
of films, but the one hundred thousandth of 
an inch thick, yet they give forth oral 
sounds as creatures of flesh and blood. In 
fact every sound is produced harmoniously 
with the action on the screen. An iron ball 
is dropped and you hear its thud upon the 
floor, a plate is cracked and you can hear 



MOVING PICTURES 


63 


the cracking just the same as if the ma¬ 
terial plate were broken in your presence. 
An immaterial piano appears upon the 
screen and a fleshless performer discourses 
airs as real as those heard on Broadway. 
Melba and Tettrazini and Caruso and 
Bond appear before you and warble their 
nightingale notes, as if behind the foot¬ 
lights with a galaxy of beauty, wealth and 
fashion before them for an audience. True 
it is not even their astral bodies you are 
looking at, only their pictured representa¬ 
tions, but the magic of their voices is there 
all the same and there is such an atmos¬ 
phere of realism about the representations 
that you can scarcely believe the actors are 
not present in propriae personae. 

Mr, Edison had much study and labor 
of experiment in bringing his device to a 
successful issue. The greatest obstacle he 
had to overcome was in getting a phono¬ 
graph that could “ hear ” far enough. At 
the beginning of the experiments the actor 
had to talk directly into the horn, which 
made the right kind of pictures impossible 
to get. Bit by bit, however, a machine 
was perfected which could “ hear ” so well 
that the actor could move at his pleasure 
within a radius of twenty feet. That is the 
machine that is being used now. This new 
combination of the moving picture machine 
and the phonograph Edison has named the 


64 , 


MOVING PICTURES 


kinetophone. By it he has made possible 
the bringing of grand opera into the ham¬ 
lets of the West, and through it also our 
leading statesmen may address audiences on 
the mining camps and the wilds of the 
prairies where their feet have never trod¬ 
den. 


CHAPTER V 


SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW THEY ARE BUILT 

Evolution of the Sky-scraper—Construc¬ 
tion—New York’s Giant Buildings— 
Dimensions. 

The sky-scraper is an architectural tri¬ 
umph, but at the same time it is very much 
of a commercial enterprise, and it is in¬ 
digenous, native-born to American soil. It 
had its inception here, particularly in New 
York and Chicago. The tallest buildings- 
in the world are in New York. The most 
notable of these, the Metropolitan Life 
Insurance Building with fifty stories tow¬ 
ering up to a height of seven hundred feet 
and three inches, has been the crowning 
achievement of architectural art, the high¬ 
est building yet erected by man. 

How is it possible to erect such building 
•—how is it possible to erect a sky-scraper 
at all ? A partial answer may be given in. 
one word— steel. 


65 










66 SKY-SCBAPERS AND HOW BUILT 


Generally speaking the method of build¬ 
ing all these huge structures is much the 
same. Massive piers or pillars are erected, 
inside which are usually strong steel col¬ 
umns ; crosswise from column to column 
great girders are placed forming a base for 
the floor, and then upon the first pillars are 
raised other steel columns slightly decreased 
in size, upon which girders are again fixed 
for the next floor; and so on this process is 
continued floor after floor. There seems no 
reason why buildings should not be reared 
like this for even a hundred stories, pro¬ 
vided the foundations are laid deep enough 
and broad enough. 

The walls are not really the support of 
the buildings. The essential elements are 
the columns and girders of steel forming 
the skeleton framework of the whole. The 
masonry may assist, but the piers and 
girders carry the principal weight. If, 
therefore, everything depends upon these 
piers, which are often of steel and masonry 
combined, the immense importance will be 
seem of basing them upon adequate founda¬ 
tions. And thus it comes about that to 
build high we must dig deep, which fact 
may be construed as an aphorism to fit 
more subjects than the building of sky¬ 
scrapers. 

To attempt to build a sky-scraper without 


SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 87 

a suitable foundation would be tantamount 
to endeavoring to build a house on a marsh 
without draining the marsh,—it would 
count failure at the very beginning. The 
formation depends on the height, the calcu¬ 
lated weight the frame work; will carry, the 
amount of air pressure, the vibrations from 
the running of internal machines and sev¬ 
eral other details of less importance than 
those mentioned, but of deep consequence 
in the aggregate. 

Instead of being carried on thick walls 
spread over a considerable area of ground, 
the sky-scrapers are carried wholly on steel 
columns. This concentrates many hundred 
tons of load and develops pressure which 
would crush the masonry and cause the 
structures to penetrate soft earth almost as 
a stone sinks in water. 

In the first place the weight of the pro¬ 
posed building and contents is estimated, 
then the character of the soil determined to 
a depth of one hundred feet if necessary. 
In New York the soil is treacherous and 
difficult, there are underground rivers in 
places and large deposits of sand so that to 
get down to rock bottom or pan is often a 
very hard undertaking. 

Generally speaking the excavations are 
made to about a depth of thirty feet. A 
.layer of concrete a foot or two thick is 








68 SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 

spread over the bottom of the pit and on it 
are bedded rows of steel beams set close 
together. Across the middle of these beams 
deep steel girders are placed on which the 
columns are erected. The heavy weight is 
thus spread out by the beams, girders and 
concrete so as to cause a reduced uniform 
pressure on the soil. Cement is filled in 
between the beams and girders and packed 
around them to seal them thoroughly 
against moisture; then clean earth or sand 
is rammed in up to the column bases and 
covered with the concrete of the cellar floor. 

In some cases the foundation loads are 
so numerous that nothing short of masonry 
piers on solid rock will safely sustain 
them. To accomplish this very strong air¬ 
tight steel or wooden boxes with flat tops 
and no bottoms are set on the pier sites at 
ground water level and pumped full of 
compressed air while men enter them and 
excavating the soil, undermine them, so they 
sink, until they land on the rock and are 
filled solid with concrete to form the bases 
of the foundation piers. 

On the average the formation should 
have a resisting power of two tons to the 
square foot, dead load. By dead load is 
meant the weight, of the steelwork, floors 
and walls, as distinguished from the office 
furniture and occupants which come under 


SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 69 

the head of living load. Some engineers 
take into consideration the pressure of both 
dead and live loads gauging the strength 
of the foundation, but the dead load pres¬ 
sure of 2 tons to the square foot will do 
for the reckoning, for as a live load only 
exerts a pressure of 60 lbs. to the square 
foot it may be included in the former. 

The columns carry the entire weights 
including dead and live loads and the wind 
pressure, into the footings, these again dis¬ 
tributing the loads on the soil. The aim is 
to have an equal pressure per square foot 
of soil at the same time, for all footings, 
thus 1 insuring an even Settlement. The 
skeleton construction now almost wholly 
consists of wrought steel. At first cast- 
iron and wrought-iron were used but it 
was found they corroded too quickly. 

There are two classes of steel construc¬ 
tion, the cage and the skeleton. In the cage 
construction the frame is strengthened for 
wind stresses and the walls act as curtains. 
In the skeleton, the frame carries only the 
vertical loads and depends upon the walls 
for its wind bracing. It has been found 
that the wind pressure is about 30 lbs. for 
every square foot of exposed surface. 

The steel columns reach from the foun¬ 
dation to the top, riveted together by plates 
and may be extended to an indefinite height. 


70 SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 

In fact there is no engineering limit to the 
height. 

The outside walls of the sky-scraper vary 
in thickness with the height of the building 
and also vary in accordance with the partic¬ 
ular kind of construction, whether cage or 
skeleton, If of the cage variety, the walls, 
as has been said, act as curtains and conse¬ 
quently they are thinner than in the skeleton 
type of construction. In the latter case the 
walls have to resist the wind pressure 
unsupported by the steel frame and there¬ 
fore they must be of a sufficient width. 
Brick and terra-cotta blocks are used for 
construction generally. 

Terra-cotta blocks are also much used in 
the flooring, and for this purpose have sev¬ 
eral advantages over other materials; they 
are absolutely fire-proof, they weigh less 
per cubic foot than any other kind of fire¬ 
proof flooring and they are almost sound¬ 
proof. They do equally well for flat and 
arched floors. 

It is of the utmost importance that the 
sky-scraper be absolutely fire-proof from 
bottom to top. These great buzzing hives 
of industry house at one time several thou¬ 
sand human beings and a panic would entail 
a fearful calamity, and, moreover, their 
height places the upper stories beyond 
reach of a water-tower and the pumping 
engines of the street. 


SKY-SCRAPEBS AND HOW BUILT 71 


The sky-scrapers of to-day are as fire¬ 
proof as human ingenuity and skill can 
make them, and this is saying much; in fact, 
it means that they cannot burn. Of course 
fires can break out in rooms and apartments 
in the manufacturing of chemicals or test¬ 
ing experiments, etc., but these are easily 
confined to narrow limits and readily extin¬ 
guished with the apparatus at hand. Steel 
columns will not burn, but if exposed' to 
heat of sufficient degree they will 
warp and bend and probably collapse, 
therefore they should be protected by 
heat resisting agents. Nothing can 
be better than terra-cotta and con¬ 
crete for this purpose. When terra-cotta 
blocks are used they should be at least 2 
inches thick with an air space running 
through them. Columns are also fire¬ 
proofed by wrapping expanded metal or 
other metal lathing around them and plas¬ 
tering. Then a furring system is put on 
and another layer of metal, lathing and 
plastering. This if well done is probably 
safer than the layer of hollow tile. 

The floor beams should be entirely cov¬ 
ered with terra-cotta blocks or concrete, so 
that no part of them is left exposed. 

As most office trimmings are of wood 
care should be taken that all electric wires 
are well insulated. Faulty installation of 





73 SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 

dynamos, motors and other apparatus is 
frequently the cause of office fires. 

The lighting- of a sky-scraper is a most 
elaborate arrangement Some of them use 
as many lights as would well supply a good 
sized town. The Singer Building in New 
York has 15,000 incandescent lamps and it 
is safe to say the Metropolitan Life Insur¬ 
ance Building has more than twice this 
number as the floor area of the latter is 
2.\ times as great. The engines and dyna¬ 
mos are in the basement and so fixed that 
their vibrations do not affect the building. 
As space is always limited in the basements 
of sky-scrapers direct connected engines 
and dynamos are generally installed instead 
of belt connected and the boilers operated 
under a high steam pressure. Besides de¬ 
livering steam to the engines the boilers 
also supply it to a variety of auxiliary 
pumps, as boiler-feed, fire-pump, blow-off, 
tank-pump and pump for forcing water 
through the building. 

The heating arrangement of such a vast 
area as is covered by the floor space of a 
sky-scraper has been a very difficult prob¬ 
lem but it has been solved so that the occu¬ 
pant of the twentieth story can receive an 
equal degree of heat with the one on the 
ground floor. Both hot water and steam 
are utilized. Hot water heating, however, 




SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 73 

is preferable to steam, as it gives a much 
steadier heat. The radiators are propor¬ 
tioned to give an average temperature of 
65° F. in each room during the winter 
months. There are automatic regulating 
devices attached to the radiators, so if the 
temperature rises above or falls below a 
certain point the steam or hot water is auto¬ 
matically turned on or off. Some buildings 
are heated by the exhaust steam from the 
engines but most have boilers solely for the 
purpose. 

The 1 sanitary system is another important 
feature. The supplying of water for wash- 
stands, the dispositions of wastes and the 
flushing of lavatories tax all the skill of the 
mechanical engineer. Several of these 
mighty buildings call for upwards of a thou¬ 
sand lavatories. 

In considering the sky-scraper we should 
not forget the role played by the electric 
elevator. Without it these buildings would 
be practically useless, as far as the upper 
stories are concerned. The labor of stair 
.climbing would leave them untenanted. No 
one would be willing to climb ten, twenty 
or thirty flights and tackle a day's work 
after the exertion *of doing so. To climb 
to the fiftieth story in such a manner would 
be well-nigh impossible or only possible by 
relays, and after one would arrive at the 










74 SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 

top he would be so physically exhausted 
that both mental and manual endeavor 
would be out of the question. Therefore 
the elevator is as necessary to the sky¬ 
scraper as are doors and windows. Indeed 
were it not for the introduction of the ele¬ 
vator the business sections of our large 
cities would still consist of the five and six 
story structures of our father’s time instead 
of the towering edifices which now lift 
their heads among the clouds. 

Regarded less than half a century ago as 
an unnecessary luxury the elevator to-day 
is an imperative necessity. Sky-scrapers 
are equipped with both express and local 
elevators. The express elevators do not 
stop until about the tenth floor is reached. 
They run at a speed of about ten feet per 
second. There are two types of elevators 
in general use, one lifting the car by cables 
from the top, and the other with a hydrau¬ 
lic plunger acting directly upon the bottom 
of the car. The former are operated either 
by electric motors or hydraulic cylinders 
and the latter by hydraulic rams, the cylin¬ 
ders extending the full height of the build¬ 
ing into the ground. 

America is pre-eminently the land of the 
sky-scraper, but England and France to a 
degree are following along the same lines, 
though nothing as yet has been erected on 


SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 75 


the other side of the water to equal the 
towering triumphs of architectural art on 
this side. In no country in the world is 
space at such a premium as in New York 
City, therefore, New York per se may be 
regarded as the true home of the tall build¬ 
ing, although Chicago is not very much 
behind the Metropolis in this respect. 

As figures are more eloquent than words 
in description the following data of the 
two giant structures of the Western World 
may be interesting. 

The Singer Building at the corner of 
Broadway and Liberty Street, New York 
City, has a total height from the basement 
floor to the top of the flagstaff of 742 feet; 
the height from street to roof is 612 feet, 1 
inch. There are 41 stories. The weight of 
the steel in the entire building is 9,200 tons. 
It has 16 elevators, 5 steam engines, 5 dyna¬ 
mos, 5 boilers and 28 steam pumps. The 
length of the steam and water piping is 5 
miles. The cubical contents of the building 
comprise 66,950,000 cubic feet, there are 
411,000 square feet of floor area or about 
g\ acres. The weight of the tower is 18,300 
tons. Little danger from a collapse will be 
apprehended when it is learned that the col¬ 
umns are securely bolted and caissons 
which have been sunk to rock-bed 80 feet 
below the curb. 


\ 



76 SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 

The other campanile which has excited 
the wonder and admiration of the world is 
the colossal pile known as the Metropolitan 
Building. This occupies the entire square 
or block as we call it from 23rd St. to 24th 
St. and from Madison to Fourth Avenue. 
It is 700 feet and 3 inches above the side¬ 
walk and has 50 stories. The main building 
which has a frontage of 200 feet by 425 
feet is ten stories in height. It is built in 
the early Italian renaissance style the mate¬ 
rials being steel and marble. The Campa¬ 
nile is carried up in the same style and is 
also of marble. It stands on a base meas¬ 
uring 75 by 85 feet and the architectural 
treatment is chaste, though severe, but emi¬ 
nently agreeable to the stupendous propor¬ 
tions of the structure. The tower is quite 
different from that of the Singer Building. 
It has twelve wall and eight interior col¬ 
umns connected at every fourth floor by 
diagonal braces; these columns carry 1,800 
pounds to the linear foot. The wind pres¬ 
sure calculated at the rate of 30 lbs. to the 
square foot is enormous and is provided for 
by deep wall girders and knee braces which 
transfer the strain to the columns and to 
the foundation. The average cross section 
of the tower is 75 by 85 feet, the floor space 
of the entire building is 1,080,000 square 
feet or about 25 acres. 




SKY-SCRAPERS AND HOW BUILT 77 

The tower of this surpassing cloud-pierc¬ 
ing structure can be seen for many miles; 
from the surrounding country and from the 
bay it looks like a giant sentinel in white¬ 
watching the mighty city at its feet and 
proclaiming the ceaseless activity and prog¬ 
ress of the Western World. 




CHAPTER VI 


OCEAN PALACES 

Ocean Greyhounds—Present Day Floating 
Palaces—Regal Appointments—Passen¬ 
ger Accommodation—Food Consumption 
—The One Thousand Foot Boat. 

The strides of naval architecture and 
marine engineering have been marvelous 
within the present generation. To-day 
huge leviathans glide over the waves with 
a swiftness and safety deemed absolutely 
impossible fifty years ago. 

In view of the luxurious accommodations 
and princely surroundings to be found on 
the modern ocean palaces, it is interesting 
to look back now almost a hundred years 
to the time when the Savannah was the first 
steamship to cross the Atlantic. True the 
voyage of this pioneer of steam from Sa¬ 
vannah to Liverpool was not much of a 
success, but she managed to crawl across 
the sails very materially aiding the engines, 
and heralded the dawn of a new day in 
transatlantic travel. No other steamboat 

78 


OCEAN PALACES 


79 


attempted the trip for almost twenty years 
after, until in 1838 the Great Western made 
the run in fifteen days. This revolutionized 
water travel and set the whole world talk¬ 
ing. It was the beginning of the passing 
of the sailing ship and was an event for re¬ 
joicing. In the old wooden hulks with 
their lazily flapping wings, waiting for a 
breeze to stir them, men and women and 
children huddled together like so many 
animals in a pen, had to spend weeks and 
months on the voyage between Europe and 
America. There was little or no room for 
sanitation, the space was crowded, deadly 
germs lurked in every cranny and crevice, 
and consequently hundreds died. To many 
indeed the sailing ship became a floating 
hearse. 

In those times, and they are not so remote, 
a voyage was dreaded as a calamity. Only 
necessity compelled the undertaking. It 
was not travel for pleasure, for pleasure 
under such circumstances and amid such 
surroundings was impossible. The poor 
emigrants who were compelled through 
stress and poverty to leave their homes for 
a foreign country feared not toil in a new 
land, but they feared the long voyage with 
its attending horrors and dangers. Dan¬ 
gerous it was, for most of the sailing ves¬ 
sels were unseaworthy and when a storm 
swept the waters, they were as children’s 


80 


OCEAN PALACES 


toys, at the mercy of wind and wave. When 
the passenger stepped on board he always 
had the dread of a watery grave before 
him. 

How different to-day. Danger has been 
eliminated almost to the vanishing point 
and the mighty monsters of steel and oak 
now cut through the waves in storms and 
hurricanes with as much ease as a duck 
swims through a pond. 

From the time the Great Western was 
launched, steamships sailing between Amer¬ 
ican and English ports became an estab¬ 
lished institution. Soon after the Great 
Western’s first voyage a sturdy New Eng¬ 
land Quaker from Nova Scotia named Sam¬ 
uel Cunard went over to London to try and 
interest the British government in a plan to 
establish a line of steamships between the 
two countries. He succeeded in raising 
£270,000, and built the Britannia, the first 
Cunard vessel to cross the Atlantic. This 
was in 1840. As ships go now she was a 
small craft indeed. Her gross tonnage was 
1,154 and her horse power 750. She carried 
only first-class passengers and these only 
to the limit of one hundred. There was 
not much in the way of accommodation as 
the quarters were cramped, the staterooms 
small and the sanitation and ventilation de¬ 
fective. It was on the Britannia that 
Charles Dickens crossed over to America 


OCEAN PALACES 


81 


in 1842 and he has given us in his usual 
style a pen picture of his impressions 
aboard. He stated that the saloon re¬ 
minded him of nothing so much as of a 
hearse, in which a number of half-starved 
stewards attempted to warm themselves 
by a glimmering stove, and that the state¬ 
rooms so-called were boxes in which the 
bunks were shelves spread with patches of 
filthy bed-clothing, somewhat after the style 
of a mustard plaster. This criticism must 
be taken with a little reservation. Dickens 
was a pessimist and always censorious and 
as he had been feted and feasted with the 
fat of the land, he expected that he should 
have been entertained in kingly quarters 
on shipboard. But because things did not 
come up to his expectations he dipped his 
pen in vitriol and began to criticise. 

■At any rate the Britannia in her day was 
looked upon as the ne plus ultra in naval 
architecture, the very acme of marine en¬ 
gineering. The highest speed she devel¬ 
oped was eight and one-half knots or about 
nine and three-quarters miles an hour. She 
covered the passage from Liverpool to 
Boston in fourteen and one-half days, 
which was then regarded as a marvellous 
feat and one which was proclaimed 
throughout England with triumph. 

For a long time the Britannia remained 
Queen of the Seas for speed, but in 1852 




82 


OCEAN PALACES 


the Atlantic record was reduced to nine 
and a half days by the Arctic . In 1876 the 
City of Paris cut down the time to eight 
days and four hours. Twelve years later 
in 1879 the Arizona still further reduced 
it to seven days and eight hours. In 1881 
the Alaska, the first vessel to receive the 
title of " Ocean Greyhound” made the 
trip in six days and twenty-one hours; in 
1885 the Umbria bounded over in six days 
and two hours, in 1890 the Teutonic of the 
White Star line came across in five days, 
eighteen hours and twenty-eight minutes, 
which was considered the limit for many 
years to come. It was not long however, 
until the Cunard lowered the colors of the 
White Star, when the Lucania in 1893 
brought the record down to five days and 
twelve hours. For a dozen years or so the 
limit of speed hovered round the five-and- 
a-half dav mark, the laurels being shared 
alternately by the vessels of the Cunard and 
White Star Companies. Then the Germans 
entered the field of competition with steam¬ 
ers of from 14,500 to 20.000 tons register 
and from 28,000 to 40,000 horse power. The 
Deutschland soon began setting the pace for 
the ocean greyhounds, while other vessels 
of the North German Lloyd line that won 
transatlantic honors were the Kaiser Wil¬ 
helm II., Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Kron- 
prinz Wilhelm and Kronprinzessin Cecilie, 


OCEAN PALACES 


83 


all remarkably fast boats with every modern 
luxury aboard that science could devise. 
These vessels are equipped with wireless 
telegraphy, submarine signalling systems, 
water-tight compartments and every other 
safety appliance known to marine skill. The 
Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse raised the stand- 
dard of German supremacy in 1902 by 
making the passage from Cherbourg to 
Sandy Hook lightship in five days and fif¬ 
teen hours. 

In 1909, however, the sister steamships 
Mauretania and Lusitania of the Cunard 
line lowered all previous ocean records, by 
making the trip in a little over four and a 
half days. They have been keeping up 
this speed to the present time, and are uni¬ 
versally regarded as the fastest and best 
equipped steamships in the world,—the 
very last word in ocean travel. On her 
last mid-September voyage the Mauretania 
has broken all ocean records by making the 
passage from Queenstown to New York in 
4 days 10 hours and 47 minutes. But they 
are closely pursued by the White Star grey¬ 
hounds such as the Oceanic, the Celtic and 
the Cedric, steamships of world wide fame 
for service, appointments, and equipment. 
Yet at the present writing the Cunard 
Company has another vessel on the stocks, 
to be named the Falconia which in meas¬ 
urements will eclipse the other two and 



84 


OCEAN PALACES 


which they are confident will make the At¬ 
lantic trip inside four days. 

The White Star Company is also build¬ 
ing two immense boats to be named the 
Olympic and Titanic. They will be 840 
feet in length and will be the largest ships 
afloat. However, it is said that freight 
and passenger-room is being more consid¬ 
ered in the construction than speed and 
that they will aim to lower no records. 
Each will be able to accommodate 5,000 
passengers besides a crew of 600. 

All the great liners of the present day 
may justly be styled ocean palaces, as far 
as luxuries and general appointments are 
concerned, but as the Mauretania and Lusi¬ 
tania are best known, a description of 
either of these will convey an idea to stay- 
at-homes of the regal magnificence and 
splendors of the floating hotels which mod¬ 
ern science places at the disposal of the 
traveling public. 

Though sister ships and modeled on 
similar lines, the Mauretania and Lusitania 
differ somewhat in construction. Of the 
two the Mauretania is the more typical 
ship as well as the more popular. This 
modern triumph of the naval architect and 
marine engineer w.as built by the firm of 
Swan, Hunter & Co. at Wellsend on the 
Tyne in 1907. The following are her di¬ 
mensions : 


OCEAN PALACES 


85 


Length over all 790 feet. 

Length between perpendiculars 760 feet. 

Breadth 88 feet. 

Depth, moulded 60-J feet. 

Gross tonnage 32,000. 

Draught 33J feet. 

Displacement 38,000 tons. 

She has accommodation space for 563 
first cabin, 500 second cabin, and 1,300 third 
class passengers. She carries a crew of 
390 engineers, 70 sailors, 350 stewards, a 
couple of score of stewardesses, 50 cooks, 
the officers and captain, besides 'a maritime 
band, a dozen or so telephone and wireless 
telegraph operators, editor and printers for 
the wireless bulletin published on board 
and two attendants for the elevator. 

The type of engine is what is known as 
the Parsons Turbine. There are 23 double 
ended and 2 single ended boilers. The en¬ 
gines develop 68,000 horse power; they are 
fed by 192 furnaces; the heating surface is 
159,000 square feet; the grate surface is 
4,060 square feet; the steam pressure is 195 
lbs. to the square inch. 

The highest speed attained has been al¬ 
most 26 knots or 30 miles an hour. At 
this rate the number of revolutions is 180 
to the minute. The coal daily consumed 
by the fiery maw of the furnaces is enor¬ 
mous. On one trip between Liverpool and 
New York more than 7,000 tons is required 




86 


OCEAN PALACES 


which is a consumption of over 1,500 tons 
daily. 

There are nine decks, seven of which are 
above the water line. Corticine has been 
largely used for deck covering, instead of 
wood as it is much lighter. On the boat 
deck which extends over the greater part of 
the centre of the ship are located several of 
the beautiful en suite cabins. Abaft these 
at the forward end are the grand Entrance 
Hall, the Library, the Music-Room and the 
Lounging-Room and Smoking-Room for 
the first cabin passengers. 

There is splendid promenading space on 
the boat deck where passengers can exer¬ 
cise to their hearts’ content and also indulge 
in games and sports with all the freedom 
of field life. Many life boats swing on 
davits and instead of being a hindrance or 
obstacle, act as shades from the sunshine 
and as breaks from the wind. 

In the space for first-class passengers 
are arranged a large number of cabins. 
What are known as the regal suites are on 
both port and starboard, and along each side 
of the main deck are more en suite 
rooms. 

On the shelter deck there are no first-class 
cabin quarters. At the forward end of this 
deck are the very powerful Napier engines 
for working the anchor gear. Abaft this 
on the starboard side is the general loung- 


OCEAN PALACES 8T 

• 

ing room for third-class passengers, while 
on the port-side is their smoking room with 
a companion way leading to the third-class 
dining saloon below and to the third-class 
cabins on the main and lower decks. The 
third-class galleys are accommodated on 
the main deck house and close by is a set 
of the refrigerating machinery used in con¬ 
nection with the rooms for the storage of 
supplies for the kitchen department. The 
side of the ship for a considerable distance 
aft of this is plated up to the promenade 
deck level so that the third-class passen¬ 
gers have not only convenient rooms but a 
protected promenade. Abaft this prome¬ 
nade is another open one. Indeed the ac¬ 
commodations for the third class are as 
good as what the first-class were accus¬ 
tomed to on most of the liners some dozen 
years ago. 

To the left of the grand staircase on the 
deck house is a children’s dining saloon and 
nursery. 

On the top deck are dining saloons for 
all three classes of passengers, that for the 
third being forward, for the first amidships 
and for the second near the stern; 470 first- 
class passengers can be seated at a time, 
250 second class and more than 500 of the 
third class. 

The main deck is given up entirely to 
staterooms. The whole of the lower deck 


88 


OCEAN PALACES 


forward is also arranged for third-class 
staterooms. The firemen and other en¬ 
gine room and stokehold workers are 
located in rooms above the machinery with 
separate entrances and exits to and from 
their work. Promenade and exercise 
space is provided for them on the shelter 
deck which is fenced off from the space of 
the second and third class passenger. Amid¬ 
ships is a coal bunker with a compartment 
under the engines for the storage of sup¬ 
plies. 

The coal trimmers are accommodated 
alongside the engine casing and abaft this 
are the mailrooms with accommodation for 
the stewards and other helpers. The 
“ orlop ” or eighth deck is devoted entirely 
to machinery with coal bunkers on each 
side of the boilers to provide against the 
effect of collisions. 

The general scheme of color throughout 
the ship is pleasing and harmonious. The 
wood for the most part is oak and mahog¬ 
any. There are over 50,000 square feet of 
oak in parquet flooring. All the carving 
and tracing is done in the wood, no super¬ 
positions or stucco work whatever being 
used to show reliefs. 

The grand stairway shows the Italian 
renaissance style of the 16th century; the 
panels are of French walnut; the carving 
of columns and pilasters is of various de- 


OCEAN PALACES 


89 


signs but the aggregate is pleasing in ef¬ 
fect. 

The Library extends across the deck 
house, 33 by 56 feet; the walls of the deck 
house are bowed out to form bay win¬ 
dows. When you first enter the Library 
the effect is as though you were looking at 
shimmering marble, this is owing to the 
lightness of the panels which are sycamore 
stained in light gray. The mantelpiece is 
of white statuary marble. The great swing 
doors which admit you, have bevelled glass 
panels set in bronze casings. The chairs 
have mahogany frames done in light plush. 

The first class lounging room is probably 
the most artistic as well as the most sump¬ 
tuous apartment in the ship. The panels 
are of beautiful ingrained mahogany dully 
polished a rich brown. The white ceiling 
is of simple design with boldly carved 
mouldings and is supported by columns 
embossed in gold of exquisite workmanship. 
Some of the panels are of curiously woven 
tapestries, the fruit of oriental looms. 
Chandeliers of beautiful design in rich 
bronze and crystal depend from the ceiling. 
The curtains, hanging with their soft folds 
against the dull gold of the carved curtain- 
boxes, are of a charming cream silk and 
with their flower borders lend a tone both 
sumptuous and refined. The carpet is of a 
slender trellis design with bluish pink roses 


90 


OCEAN PALACES 


trailing over a pearl grey ground and forms 
a perfect foil to the splendid furniture. 
The chairs are of polished beech covered 
with 18th century brocade. 

The smoking-room of the first-class is 
done in rich oak carving with an inlaid 
border around the panels. An unusual 
feature in the main part of the room is a 
jube passageway extending the whole 
length and divided into recesses with di¬ 
vans and card tables. Writing tables may 
be found in secluded nooks free from inter¬ 
ruption. The windows of unusual size, are 
semicircular and give a home-like appear¬ 
ance to the room. 

The dining saloon is in light oak with 
all carvings worked in the wood. A chil¬ 
dren’s nursery off the main stairway in the 
deck house is done in mahogany. Enameled 
white panels depict the old favorite of the 
Four and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a 
Pie. 

An air of delicate refinement and rich 
luxury hangs about the regal rooms. A 
suite consists of drawing-room, dining¬ 
room, two bedrooms, bathroom and a pri¬ 
vate corridor. The drawing- and dining¬ 
rooms of these suites are paneled in East 
India satin-wood, probably the hardest and 
most durable of all timber. The bedrooms 
are in Georgian style finished in white 
with satin hangings. 


OCEAN PALACES 


91 


The special staterooms are also finished 
in rich woods on white and gold and have 
damask and silk hangings and draperies. 
An idea of the richness and magnificence of 
the interior decorations may be obtained 
when it is learned that the cost of these 
decorations exceeded three million dollars. 

The galleys, pantries, bakery, confection¬ 
ery and utensil cleaning rooms extend the 
full length of the ship. Electricity plays an 
important part in the culinary department. 
Electric motors mix dough, run grills and 
roasters, clean knives and manipulate plate 
racks and other articles of the kitchen. 
The main cooking range for the saloon is 
24 by 8 feet, heated by coal. There are 
four steam boilers and 12 steam ovens. 
There are extensive cold storage compart¬ 
ments and refrigerating chambers. 

In connection with the commissariat de¬ 
partment it is interesting to note the food 
supply carried for a trip of this floating 
caravansary. Elere is a list of the leading 
supplies needed for a trip, but there are 
hundreds of others too numerous to men¬ 
tion: Forty thousand pounds of fresh 
beef, 1,000 lbs. of corned beef, 8,000 lbs. of 
mutton, 800 lbs. of lamb, 600 lbs. of veal, 
500 lbs. of pork, 4,000 lbs. of fish, 2,000 
fowls, 100 geese, 150 turkeys, 350 ducks, 
400 pigeons, 250 partridges, 250 grouse, 
200 pheasants, 800 quail, 200 snipe, 35 tons 





92 


OCEAN PALACES 


of potatoes, 75 hampers of vegetables, 500 
quarts ice ream, 3,500 quarts of milk, 30,- 
000 eggs and in addition many thousand 
bottles of mineral water and spirituous 
liquors. 

The health of the passengers is carefully 
guarded during the voyage. The science 
of thermodynamics has been brought to as 
great perfection as possible. Not alone is 
the heating thoroughly up to modern sci¬ 
ence requirements but the ventilation as 
well, by means of thermo tanks, suction 
valves and exhaust fans. All foul air is 
expelled and fresh currents sent through 
all parts of the ship. 

There is an electric generating station 
abaft the main engine room containing 
four turbo-generators each of 375 kilo¬ 
watts capacity. 

There are more than 5,000 electric lights 
and every room is connected by an electric 
push-bell. There is a telephone exchange 
through which one can be connected with 
any department of the vessel. When in 
harbor, either at Liverpool or New York, 
the wires are connected to the City Central 
exchange so that the ships can be communi¬ 
cated with either by local or long distance 
telephone. 

By means of wireless telegraphy voya¬ 
gers can communicate with friends during 
almost the entire trip and learn the news of 


OCEAN PALACES 


93 


the world the same as if they were on land. 
A bulletin is published daily on board giv¬ 
ing news of the leading happenings of the 
world. 

There is a perfect fire alarm system on 
board with fire mains on each side of the 
ship from which connections £re taken to 
every separate department. There are 
boxes with hydrant and valve in each room 
and a system of break glass fire alarms 
with a drop indicator box in the chartroom 
and also one in the engine-room to notify 
in case of any outbreak. 

The sanitation is all that could be de¬ 
sired. There are flush lavatories on all 
decks in marble and onyx and with all the 
sanitary contrivances in apparatus of the 
best design. 

The vessel is propelled by four screws, 
rotated by turbine engines and the power 
developed is equal to that of 68,000 horses. 
Now 68,000 horses placed head to tail in 
a single line would reach a distance of 90 
miles or as far as from New York to Phila¬ 
delphia; and if the steeds were harnessed 
twenty abreast there would be no fewer 
than 3,400 rows of powerful horses. 

Such is the steamship of to-day but there 
is no doubt that the thousand foot boat is 
coming, which probably will cross the At¬ 
lantic ocean in less than four days if not in 
three. But the question is, where shall we 


94 


OCEAN PALACES 


put her, that is, where shall we dock 
her? 

To build a thousand foot pier to accom¬ 
modate her, appears like a good answer to 
this question, but the great difficulty is that 
there are United States Government regu¬ 
lations restricting the length of piers to 800 
feet. Docking space along the shore of 
New York harbor is too valuable to permit 
the ship being berthed parallel to the shore, 
therefore vessels must dock at right angles 
to the shore. Some provisions must soon 
be made and the regulations as to dock 
lengths revised. 

The thousand footer may be here in a 
couple of years or so. In the meantime the 
two 840 footers are already on the stocks at 
Belfast and are expected to arrive early in 
1911. Before they come changes and im¬ 
provements must be made in the docking 
and harbor facilities of the port of New 
York. 

If higher speed is demanded, increased 
size is essential, since wuth even the best re¬ 
sult every 100 horse-power added involves 
an addition to machinery weight of approxi¬ 
mately 14 tons and to the area occupied of 
about 40 square feet. To accomplish this 
the ship must be as much larger in propor¬ 
tion. 

The ship designer has to work witmn cir¬ 
cumscribed limits. If he could make his 


OCEAN PALACES 


95 


vessel of any depth he might build much 
larger and there would be theoretically no 
limit to his speed: 40. knots an hour might 
be obtained as easily as the present maxi¬ 
mum of 26, but in designing his ship he 
must remember that in the harbors of New 
York or Liverpool the channels are not 
much beyond 30 feet in depth. High speed 
necessitates powerful engines, but if the 
engines be too large there will not be space 
enough for coal to feed the furnaces. If 
the breadth of the ship is increased the 
speed is diminished, while on the other 
hand, if too powerful engines are put in a 
narrow vessel she will break her back. The 
proper proportions must be carefully stud¬ 
ied as regards length, breadth, depth and 
weight so that the vessel will derive the 
greatest speed from her engines. 


CHAPTER VII 


WONDERFUL CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 

Mating Plants—Experiments of Burbank 
—What he has Accomplished. 

In California lives a wonderful man. He 
has succeeded in doing more than making 
two blades of grass grow where grew but 
one. Yearly, daily in fact, this wizard of 
plant life is playing tricks on old Mother 
Nature, transforming her vegetable chil¬ 
dren into different shapes and making 
them no longer recognizable in their 
original forms. Like the fairies in Irish 
mythology, this man steals away the plant 
babies, but instead of leaving sickly elves 
in their places, he brings into the world * 
exceedingly healthy or lusty youngsters 
which grow up into a full maturity, and 
develop traits of character superior to the 
ones they supplant. For instance he took 
away the ugly, thorny insipid cactus and 
replaced it by a beautiful smooth juicy one 
which is now making the western deserts 
blossom as the rose. The name of this man 

96 , 


CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 97 


is Luther Burbank whose fame as a creator 
of new plants has become world wide. 

The basic principle of Burbank’s plant 
magic comes under two heads, viz.: breed¬ 
ing and selection. He mates two different 
species in such a way that they will propa¬ 
gate a type partaking of the natures of 
both but superior to either in their quali¬ 
ties. In order to effect the best results from 
mating, he is choice in his selection of 
species—the best is taken and the worst 
rejected. It is a universal law that the bad 
can never produce the good; consequently 
when good is desired, as is universally the 
case, bad must be eliminated. In his 
method, Burbank gives the good a chance 
to assert itself and at the same time takes 
away all opportunity from the bad. So 
that the latter cannot thrive but must decay 
and pass out of being. He takes two plants 
—they may be of the same species, but as 
a general rule he prefers to experiment with 
those of different species; he perceives that 
neither one in its present surroundings is 
putting forth what is naturally expected 
from it, that each is either retrograding in 
the scale of life or standing still for lack 
of encouragement to go forward. He 
knows that back of these plants is a long 
history of evolutions from primitive begin¬ 
nings to their present stage just as in the 
case of man himself. ’ Tis a far cry from 





98 CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 

the cliff-dweller wielding his stone-axe and 
roaming nude through the fields and for¬ 
ests after his prey—the wild beast—to the 
lordly creature of to-day—the product of 
long ages of civilization and culture, yet 
high as the state is to which man has been 
brought, in many cases he is hemmed in 
and surrounded by circumstances which 
preclude him from putting forth the best 
that is in him and showing his full possi¬ 
bilities to the world. The philosopher is 
often hidden in the ploughman .and many 
a poor laborer toiling in corduroys and 
fustian at the docks, in the mills, or sweep¬ 
ing the streets may have as good a brain 
as Edison, but has not the opportunity to 
develop it and show its capabilities. The 
same analogy is applicable to plant life. 
Under adverse conditions a plant or vege¬ 
table cannot put forth its best efforts. In 
a scrawny, impoverished soil, and ex¬ 
hausted atmosphere, lacking the constitu¬ 
ents of nurture, the plant will become 
dwarfed and unproductive, whereas on 
good ground and in good air, which have 
the succulent properties to nourish it the 
best results may be expected. The soil and 
the air, therefore, from which are derived 
the constituents of plant life, are indis¬ 
pensably necessary, but they are not the 
primal principles upon which that life de¬ 
pends for its being. The basis, the foun- 



CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 99 


dation, the origin of the life is the seed 
which germinates in the soil and evolves 
itself into the plant. 

A dead seed will not germinate, a con¬ 
taminated seed may, but the plant it pro¬ 
duces will not be a healthy one and it will 
only be after a long series of transplant¬ 
ings, with patience and care, that at length 
a really sound plant will be obtained. The 
same principle holds good in regard to 
the human plant. It is hard to offset an 
evil ancestry. The contamination goes on 
from generation to generation, just as in 
the case of the notorious Juke family which 
Cost New York State hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of dollars in consequence of crim¬ 
inality and idiocy. It requires almost a 
miracle to divert an individual sprung from 
a corrupt stem into a healthy, moral course 
of living. There must be some powerful 
force brought to bear to make him break 
the ligatures which bind him to ancestral 
nature and enable him to come forth on 
a plane where he will be susceptible to the 
influence of what is good and noble. Such 
can be done and has been accomplished. 

Burbank is accomplishing such miracles 
in the vegetable kingdom, in fact he is re¬ 
creating species as it were and developing 
them to a full fruition. Of course as in 
the case of the conversion of a sinner from 
his evil instincts, much opposition is met 


'100 CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 


and the progress at first is slow, but finally 
the plant becomes fixed in its new ways 
and starts forward on its new course in 
life. It requires patience to await the de¬ 
velopment. Burbank is a man of infinite 
patience. He has been five, ten, fifteen, 
twenty years in producing a desired blos¬ 
som, but he considers himself well re¬ 
warded when his object has been obtained. 
Thousands of experiments are going on at 
the same time, but in each case years are 
required to achieve results, so slow is the 
work of selection, the rejecting of the seem¬ 
ingly worthless and the eternal choosing of 
the best specimens to continue the experi¬ 
ments. 

When two plants are united to produce 
a third, no human intelligence can predict 
just what will be the result of the union. 
There may be no result at all; hence it is 
that Burbank does not depend on one ex¬ 
periment at a time. If he did the labors 
of a life-time would have little to show for 
their work. In breeding lilies he has used 
as high as five hundred thousand plants in 
a single test. Such an immense quantity 
gave him a great variety of selection. He 
culled and rejected, and culled and rejected 
until he made his final selection for the 
last test. 

Sometimes he is very much disappointed 
in his anticipations. For instance, he 


CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 10T 

marks out a certain life for a flower and 
breeds and selects to that end. For, a time 
all may go according to his plans, but sud¬ 
denly some new trait develops which knocks 
those plans all out of gear. The new 
flower may have a longer stem and nar¬ 
rower leaves than either parent, while a 
shorter stem and broader leaves are the 
desideratum. The experimenter is disap¬ 
pointed, but not disheartened; he casts the 
flower aside and makes another selection 
from the same species and again goes 
ahead, until his object is attained. 

It may be asked how two plants are 
united to procure a third. The act is based 
on the procreative law of nature. Plant¬ 
breeding is simply accomplished by sifting 
the pollen of one plant upon the stigma of 
another, this act—pollenation—resulting in 
fertilization, Nature in her own mysterious 
ways bringing forth the new plant. 

In order to get an idea of the Burbank 
method, let us consider some of his most 
famous experiments, for instance, that in 
which by uniting the potato' with the tomato 
he has produced a new variety which has 
been very aptly named the pomato. Mr. 
Burbank, from the beginning of his won¬ 
derful career, has experimented much with 
the potato. It was this vegetable which 
first brought the plant wizard into world¬ 
wide prominence. The Burbank potato is 


102 CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 


known in all lands where the tuber forms 
an article of food. It has been introduced 
into Ireland and promises to be the salva¬ 
tion of that distressed island of which the 
potato constitutes the staple diet. The 
Burbank potato is the hardiest of all vari¬ 
eties and in this respect is well suited for 
the colder climates of the Temperate Zone. 
Apart from this potato which bears his 
name, Mr. Burbank has produced many 
other varieties. He has blended wild vari¬ 
eties with tame ones, getting very satis¬ 
factory results. Mr. Burbank believes that 
a little wild blood, so to speak, is often nec¬ 
essary to give tone and vigor to the tame 
element which has been long running in 
the same channels. Probably it was Emer¬ 
son, his favorite author, who gave him the 
cue for this idea. Emerson pointed out 
that the city is recruited from the coun¬ 
try. “ The city would have died out, 
rotted and exploded long ago,” wrote the 
New England sage, “ but that it was re¬ 
inforced from the fields. It is only coun¬ 
try that came to town day before yester¬ 
day, that is city and court to-day.” 

In Burbank’s greenhouses are mated all 
kinds of wild and tame varieties of pota¬ 
toes, producing crosses and combinations 
truly wonderful as regards shape, size, and 
color. One of the most palatable potatoes 
he has produced is a magenta color ap- 



CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 103 


proaching crimson, so distributed through¬ 
out that when the tuber is cut, no matter 
from what angle, it presents concentric 
geometric figures, some having a resem¬ 
blance to human and animal faces. 

Before entering on any experiment to 
produce a new creation, Burbank always 
takes into consideration the practical end 
of the experiment, that is, what the value 
of the result will be as a practical factor 
in commerce, how much it will benefit the 
race. He does not experiment for a pas¬ 
time or a novelty, but for a purpose His 
object in regard to the potato is to make 
it a richer, better vegetable for a food sup¬ 
ply and also to make it more important 
for other purposes in the commerce of the 
nations. 

The average potato consists of seventy- 
five per cent, water and twenty-five per 
cent, dry matter, almost all of which is 
starch. Now starch is a very important 
article from a manufacturing standpoint, 
but only one-fourth of the potato is avail¬ 
able for manufacturing, the other three- 
fourths, being water, is practically waste 
matter. Now if the water could be driven 
out to a great extent and starchy matter 
increased it is easy to understand that the 
potato would be much increased in value 
as an article of manufacture. Burbank has 
not overlooked this fact in his potato ex- 



104 CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 

periments. He has demonstrated that it 
is as easy to breed potatoes for a larger 
amount of starch, and he has really devel¬ 
oped tubers which contain at least twenty- 
five per cent, more starch than the normal 
varieties; in other words, he has produced 
potatoes which yield fifty per cent, of 
starch instead of twenty-five per cent. The 
United States uses about $12,000,000 worth 
of starch every year, chiefly obtained from 
Indian corn and potatoes. When the po¬ 
tato is made to yield double the amount of 
starch, as Burbank has proved it can yield 
and more, it will be understood what a 
large part it can be made to play in this 
important manufacture. 

Also for the production of alcohol the 
potato is gaining a prominent place. The 
potato starch is converted into maltose by 
the diastase of malt, the maltose being 
easily acted upon by ferment for the actual 
production of the alcohol. Therefore an 
increase in the starch of the potato for 
this purpose alone is much to be desired. 

Of course the chief prominence of the 
potato will still consist in its adaptability 
as an article of food. Burbank does not 
overlook this. He has produced and is 
producing potatoes with better flavor, of 
larger and uniform size and which give a 
much greater yield to the area. Paya¬ 
bility in the end decides the permanence of 


CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 105 

a food, and the Burbank productions pos¬ 
sess this quality in a high degree. 

Burbank labored long and studied every 
characteristic of the potato before attempt¬ 
ing any experiments with the tomato. 
Though closely related by family ties, the 
potato and the tomato seemed to have no 
affinity for each other whatever. In many 
other instances it has also been found that 
two varieties which from a certain relation 
might naturally be expected to amalga¬ 
mate easily have been repellant to each 
other and refused to unite. 

In his first experiment in trying to cross 
the potato and tomato, Burbank produced 
tomatoes from the seeds of plants pollen- 
ated from potato pollen only. He next 
produced what he called “ aerial potatoes ” 
of very peculiar twisted shapes from a po¬ 
tato vine grafted on a Ponderosa or large 
tomato plant. Then reversing this operation 
he grafted the same kind of tomato plant 
upon the same kind of potato plant and 
produced underground a strange-looking 
potato with marked tomato characteristics. 
He saw he was on the right road to the 
production of a new variety of vegetable, 
but before experimenting further along 
this line he crossed two distinct species of 
tomatoes and obtained a most ornamental 
plant, different from the parent stems, 
about twelve inches high and fifteen inches 






10(5 CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 


across with large unusual leaves and pro¬ 
ducing clusters of uniform globular fruit, 
the whole giving a most pleasing and 
unique appearance. The fruit were more 
palatable than the ordinary tomatoes, had 
better nutritive qualities and were more suit¬ 
able for preserving and canning. 

Very pleased with this result he went 
back to his experiments with the potato- 
tomato, and succeeded in producing the 
most wonderful and unique fruit in the 
world, one which by a happy combination 
of the two names, he has aptly called the 
pomato. It may be considered as the evo¬ 
lution of a potato seed-ball. It first appears 
as a tiny green ball on the potato top and 
as the season progresses it gradually en¬ 
larges and finally develops into a fruit 
about the size and shape of the ordinary 
tomato. The flesh is white and the mar¬ 
row, which contains but a few tiny white 
seeds, is exceedingly pleasant to the taste, 
possessing a combination of several differ¬ 
ent fruit flavors, though it cannot be identi¬ 
fied with any one. It may be eaten either 
raw or cooked after the manner of the 
common tomato. In either case it is most 
palatable, but especially so when cooked. 
It is exceptionally well adapted to preserv¬ 
ing purposes. 

The production of such a fruit from a 
vegetable is one of the crowning triumphs 


CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 107 

of the California wizard. Probably it is 
the most novel of all the wonderful crosses 
and combinations he has given to the 
world. 

It would be impossible here to go into 
detail in regard to some of the other won¬ 
ders accomplished in the plant world by 
this modern magician. There is only space 
to merely mention a few more of his suc¬ 
cessful achievements. He has given the 
improved thornless and spiculess cactus, 
food for man and beast, converting it into 
a beautifier and reclaimer of desert wastes ; 
the plum-cot which is an amalgamation of 
the plum and the apricot with a flavor supe¬ 
rior to both; many kinds of plums, some 
without pits, others having the taste of 
B-artlett pears, and still others giving out 
a fragrance as sweet as the rose; several 
varieties of walnuts, one with a shell as thin 
as paper and which was so easily broken by 
the birds that Burbank had to reverse his 
experiment somewhat in order to get a 
thicker shell; another walnut has no tannin 
in the meat, which is the cause of the dis¬ 
agreeable flavor of the ordinary fruit; the 
world-famed Shasta daisy, which is a com¬ 
bination of the Japanese daisy, the English 
daisy and the common field daisy, and which 
has a blossom seven inches in diameter; a 
dahlia deprived of its unpleasant odor and 
the scent of the magnolia blossom substi- 





108 CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 


tuted; a gladiolus which blooms around the 
entire stem like a hyacinth instead of the 
old way on one side only; many kinds of 
lilies with chalices and petals different from 
the ordinary, and exhaling perfumes as va¬ 
ried as those of Oriental gardens; a poppy 
of such dimension that it is from ten to 
twelve inches across its brilliant bloom; an 
amaryllis bred up from a couple of inches 
to over a foot in diameter; several kinds of 
fruit trees which withstand frost in bud and 
in flower; a chestnut tree which bears nuts 
in eighteen months from the time of seed¬ 
planting; a white blackberry (paradoxical 
as it may appear), a rare and beautiful fruit 
and as palatable as it is beautiful; the pri- 
musberry, a union of the raspberry and the 
blackberry ; another wonderful and delicious 
berry produced from the California dew¬ 
berry and the Cuthbert-raspberry; pie¬ 
plants four feet in diameter, bearing every 
day in the year; prunes, three, four, and 
five times as large as the ordinary and en¬ 
riched in flavor; blackberries without their 
prickly thorns and hundreds of other com¬ 
binations and crosses of fruits and flowers 
too numerous to mention. He has im¬ 
proved plums, pears, apples, apricots, 
quinces, peaches, cherries, grapes, in short, 
all kinds of fruit which grow in our latitude 
and many even that have been introduced. 
He has developed hundreds of varieties 


CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 109 


of flowers, improving them in color, hardi¬ 
ness and yield. Thus he has not only 
added to the food and manufacturing prod¬ 
ucts of the world, but he has enriched the 
aesthetic side in his beautiful flower cre¬ 
ations. 



CHAPTER VIII 


LATEST DISCOVERIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY 

Prehistoric Time—Earliest Records—Dis¬ 
coveries in Bible Lands—American Ex¬ 
plorations. 

For the earliest civilization and culture 
we must go to that part of the world, 
which according to the general belief, is 
the cradle of the human race. The civili¬ 
zation of the Mesopotamian plain is not 
only the oldest but the first where man set¬ 
tled in great city communities, under an 
orderly government, with a developed reli¬ 
gion, practicing agriculture, erecting 
dwellings and using a syllabified writing. 
All modern civilization had its source 
there. For 6,000 years the cuneiform or 
wedge-shaped writing of the Assyrians 
was the literary script of the whole civil¬ 
ized ancient world, from the shores of the 
Mediterranean to India and even to China, 
for Chinese civilization, old as it is, is 
based upon that which obtained in Meso¬ 
potamia. In Egypt, too, at an early date 
was a high form of neolithic civilization. 
Six thousand years before Christ, a white- 

110 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 111 


skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed race 
dwelt there, built towns, carried on com¬ 
merce, made woven linen cloth, tanned 
leather, formed beautiful pottery without 
the wheel, cut stone with the lathe and de¬ 
signed ornaments from ivory and metals. 
These were succeeded by another great 
race which probably migrated into Egypt 
from Arabia. Among them were war¬ 
riors and administrators, fine mechanics, 
artisans, artists and sculptors. They left 
us the Pyramids and other magnificent 
monumental tombs and great masses of 
architecture and sculptured columns. Of 
course, they declined and passed away, as 
all things human must; but they left be¬ 
hind them evidences to tell of their pres¬ 
tige and power. 

The scientists and geologists of our day 
are busy unearthing the remains of the 
ancient peoples of the Eastern world, who 
started the waves of civilization both to 
the Orient and the Occident. 'Vast stores 
of knowledge are being accumulated and 
almost every day sees some ancient treas¬ 
ure trove brought to light. Especially in 
Biblical lands is the explorer busy unearth¬ 
ing the relics of the mighty past and 
throwing a flood of light upon incidents 
and scenes long covered by the dust of 
centuries. 

Babylon, the mightiest city of ancient 




112 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 


times, celebrated in the Bible and in the 
earliest human records as the greatest 
centre of sensual splendor and sinful lux¬ 
ury the world has ever seen, is at last be¬ 
ing explored in the most thorough manner 
by the German Oriental Society, of which 
the Kaiser is patron. Babylon rose to its 
greatest glory under Nebuchadnezzar, the 
most famous monarch of the Babylonian 
Empire. At that period it was the great 
centre of arts, learning and science, as¬ 
tronomy and astrology being patronized by 
the Babyonian kings. The city finally 
came to a terrible end under Belshazzar, 
as related in the Bible. The palace of the 
impious king has been uncovered and its 
great piles of masonry laid bare. The 
great hall, where the young prophet Dan¬ 
iel read the handwriting on the wall, can 
now be seen. The palace stood on ele¬ 
vated ground and was of majestic dimen¬ 
sions. A winding chariot road led up to 
it. The lower part was of stone and the 
upper of burned bricks. All around on 
the outside ran artistic sculptures of men 
hunting animals. The doors were massive 
and of bronze and swung inward, between 
colossal figures of winged bulls. From 
the hall a stairway led to the throne room 
of the King, which was decorated with 
gold and precious stones and finished in 
many colors. The hall in which the in- 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 113 


famous banquet was held was 140 feet by 
40 feet. For a ceiling it was spanned by 
the cedars of Lebanon which exhaled a 
sweet perfume. At night a myriad lights 
lent brilliancy to the scene. There were 
over 200 rooms all gorgeously furnished, 
most of them devoted to the inmates of the 
king’s harem. The ruins as seen to-day 
impress the visitor and excite wonder and 
admiration. 

The Germans have also uncovered the 
great gate of Ishtar at Babylon, which 
Nebuchadnezzar erected in honor of the 
goddess of love and war, the most .re¬ 
nowned of all the mythical deities of the 
Babylonian Pantheon. It is a double 
gateway with interior chambers, flanked 
by massive towers and was erected at the 
end of the Sacred Road at the northeast 
corner of the palace. Its most unique fea¬ 
ture consists in the scheme of decoration 
on its walls, which are covered with row 
upon row of bulls and dragons represented 
in the brilliant enamelled bricks. Some of 
these creatures are flat and others raised 
in relief. Those in relief are being taken 
apart to be sent to Berlin, where they will 
be again put together for exhibition. 

The friezes on this gate of Ishtar are 
among the finest examples of enamelled 
brickwork that have been uncovered and 
take their place beside “ the Lion Frieze ir 









114 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 


from Sargon’s palace at Khorsabad and 
the still more famous “ Frieze of Arches 
of King Darius ” in the Paris Louvre. 

The German party have already estab¬ 
lished the claim of Herodotus as to the 
thickness of the walls of the city. Herod¬ 
otus estimated them at two hundred royal 
cubits (348 feet) high and fifty royal 
cubits (86J feet) thick. At places they 
have been found even thicker. So wide 
were they that on the top a four-horse 
chariot could easily turn. 

The hanging gardens of Babylon, said 
to have been built to please Amytis the 
consort of Nebuchadnezzar, were classed 
as among the Seven Wonders of the 
World. Terraces were constructed 450 
feet square, of huge stones which cost 
millions in that stoneless country. These 
were supported by countless columns, the 
tallest of which were 160 feet high. On 
top of the stones were layers of brick, ce¬ 
mented and covered with pitch, over which 
was poured a layer of lead to make all ab¬ 
solutely water-tight. Finally, on the top 
of this, earth was spread to such a depth 
that the largest trees had room for their 
roots. The trees were planted in rows 
forming squares and between them were 
flower gardens. In fact, these gardens 
constituted an Eden in the air, which has 
never since been duplicated. 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 115 


New discoveries have been recently 
made concerning the Tower of Babel, the 
construction of which, as described in the 
Book of Genesis, is one of the most re¬ 
markable occurrences of the first stage of 
the world’s history. It has been found 
that the tower was square and not round, 
as represented by all Bible illustrators, in¬ 
cluding Dore. The ruins cover a space of 
about 50,000 square feet and are about ten 
miles from the site of Babylon. 

The ruins of the celebrated synagogue 
of Capernaum, believed to be the very one 
in which the Saviour preached, have been 
unearthed and many other Biblical sites 
around the ancient city have been identi¬ 
fied 

Capernaum was the home of Jesus dur¬ 
ing nearly the whole of his Galilean min¬ 
istry and the scene of many of his most 
wonderful miracles. The site of Caper¬ 
naum is now known as Tell Hum. There 
are ruins scattered about over a radius of 
a mile. The excavating which revealed 
the ruins of the synagogue was done under 
supervision of a German archaeologist 
named Kohl. This synagogue was com¬ 
posed of white limestone blocks brought 
from a distance and in this respect differ¬ 
ent from the others which were built of 
the local black volcanic rock. The carv¬ 
ings unearthed in the ruins are very beau- 







116 LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 

tiful and most of them in high relief work, 
representing trailing vines, stately palms, 
clusters of dates, roses and acanthus. 
Various animal designs are also shown and 
one of the famous seven-branched candle¬ 
sticks which accompanied the Ark of the 
Covenant. 

Most of the incidents at Capernaum 
mentioned in the Bible were connected 
with the synagogue, the ruins of which 
have just been uncovered. The centurion 
who came to plead with Jesus about the 
servant was the man who built the syna¬ 
gogue (Luke VII:i-io). In the syna¬ 
gogue, Jesus healed the man with the un¬ 
clean spirit (Mark 1:21-27). I n this syn¬ 
agogue, the man with the withered hand 
received health on the Sabbath Day (Mat¬ 
thew XII:io-i3). Jairus, whose daughter 
was raised from the dead, was a ruler of 
the synagogue (Luke VIII13) and it was 
in this same synagogue of Capernaum that 
Jesus preached the discourse on the bread 
of life (John VI:26~59). The hill near 
Capernaum where Jesus fed the multitude 
with five loaves and two fishes is also iden¬ 
tified. 

The stoning of St. Stephen and the con¬ 
version of St. Paul are two great events 
of the New Testament which lend addi¬ 
tional interest to the explorations now be¬ 
ing carried on at the ancient City of Da- 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 117 

mascus. Damascus lays claim to being 
the most ancient city in the world and its 
appearance sustains the claim. Unlike 
Jerusalem and many other ancient cities, 
it has never been completely destroyed by 
a conqueror. The Assyrian monarch* 
Tiglath Pileser, swept down on it, 2,700 
years ago, but he did not succeed in wip¬ 
ing it out. Other cities came into being 
long after Damascus, they flourished, 
faded and passed away; but Damascus 
still remains much the same as in the early 
time. Among the famous places which 
have been identified in this ancient city is 
the house of Ananias the priest and the 
place in the wall where Paul was let down 
by a basket is pointed out. The scene of 
the conversion of St. Paul is shown and 
also the “ Street called Straight ” referred 
to in Acts IX :ii. 

Jerusalem, birthplace and cradle of 
Christianity, offers a vast and interesting 
field to the archaeologist. One of the most 
remarkable of recent discoveries relates to 
the building known as David’s castle. 
Major Conder, a British engineer in 
charge of the Palestine survey, has proved 
that this building is actually a part of the 
palace of King Herod who ordered the 
Massacre of the Innocents in order to en¬ 
compass the destruction of the Infant 
Saviour. 



118 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 


The tomb of Hiram is another relic dis¬ 
covered at the village of Hunaneh on the 
road from Safed to Tyre; it recalls the 
days of David. Hiram was King of Tyre in 
the time of David. The tomb is a limestone 
structure of extraordinary massiveness. 
Unfortunately the Mosque of Omar stands 
on the site of Solomon’s Temple and there 
is no hope of digging there. As for the 
palace of Solomon, it should be easy to find 
the foundations, for Jerusalem has been 
rebuilt several times upon the ruins of ear¬ 
lier periods and vast ancient remains must 
be still buried there. The work is being 
pushed vigorously at present and the fu¬ 
ture should bring to light many interesting 
relics. At last the real site of the Cruci¬ 
fixion may be found with many mementoes 
of the Saviour, and the Apostles. 

Professor Flinders Petrie, the famous 
English archaeologist, has recently explored 
the Sinaitic peninsula and has found many 
relics of the Hebrews’ passage through the 
country during the Exodus and also many 
of a still earlier period. He found a re¬ 
markable number of altars and tombs be¬ 
longing to a very early form of religion. 
On the Mount where Moses received the 
tables of the law is a monastery erected by 
the Emperor Justinian 523 A. D. Al¬ 
though the conquering wave of Islam has 
swept over the peninsula, leaving it bare 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 119 


and desolate, this monastery still survives, 
the only Christian landmark, not only in 
Sinai but in all Arabia. The original 
tables of stone on which the Command¬ 
ments were written, were placed in the Ark 
of the Covenant and taken all through the 
Wilderness to Palestine and finally placed 
in the Temple of Solomon. What became 
of it when the Temple was plundered and 
destroyed by the Babylonians is not known. 

Clay tablets have been found at Nineveh 
of the Creation and the Flood as known to 
the Assyrians. These tablets formed part 
of a great epic poem of which Nimrod, 
the mighty hunter, was the hero. 

Explorers are now looking for the pal¬ 
ace of Nimrod, also that of Sennacherib, 
the Assyrian monarch who besieged Jeru¬ 
salem. The latter despoiled the Temple 
of many of its treasures and it is believed 
that his palace, when found, may reveal 
the Tables of the Law, the Ark of the 
Covenant, the Seven-branched candlestick, 
and many of the golden vessels used in 
Israelitish worship. 

Ur of the Chaldees, birthplace of Abra¬ 
ham, father and founder of the Hebrew 
race, is a rich field for the archaeologist to 
plough. Some tablets have already been 
discovered, but they are only a mere sug¬ 
gestion as to future possibilities. It is be¬ 
lieved by some eminent investigators that 



120 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 


we owe to Abraham the early part of the 
Book of Genesis describing the Creation, 
the Tower of Babel and the Flood, and the 
quest of archaeologists is to find, if not the 
original tablets, at least some valuable rec¬ 
ords which may be buried in this neighbor¬ 
hood. 

Excavators connected with the Ameri¬ 
can School at Jerusalem are busy at Sa¬ 
maria and they believe they have uncov¬ 
ered portions of the great temple of Baal, 
which King Ahab erected in honor of the 
wicked deity 890 B. C. When the re¬ 
mains of this temple are fully uncovered 
it will be learned just how far the Israel¬ 
ites forsook the worship of the true God 
for that of Baal. 

The Germans have begun work on the 
site of Jericho, once the royal capital of 
Canaan, and historic chiefly from the fact 
that Joshua led the Israelites up to its 
walls, reported to be impregnable, but 
which “ fell down at the blast of the trum¬ 
pet.” Great piles have been unearthed 
here which it is thought formed a part of 
the original masonry. One excavator be¬ 
lieves he has unearthed the ruins of the 
house of Rahab, the woman who sheltered 
Joshua’s spies. Another thinks he has dis¬ 
covered the site of the translation of Eli¬ 
jah, the Prophet, from whence he was car¬ 
ried up to heaven in a fiery chariot. 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 121 


Every Christian will be interested in 
learning what is to be found in Nazareth 
where Jesus spent his boyhood. Archaeolo¬ 
gists have located the “ Fount of the Vir¬ 
gin/’ and the rock from which the infuri¬ 
ated inhabitants attempted to hurl Christ. 

In the “ Land of Goshen ” where the 
Israelites in a state of servitude worked 
for the oppressing Pharaoh (Rameses II), 
excavators have found bricks made with¬ 
out straw as mentioned in Scripture, un¬ 
doubtedly the work of Hebrew slaves, also 
glazed bead necklaces. They are looking 
for the House of Amran, the father of 
Moses, where the great leader was born. 

The site of Arbela, where Alexander 
the Great won his mightiest victory over 
Darius, has been discovered. It is a series 
of mounds on the Western bank of the 
Tigris river between Nineveh and Bagdad. 
All the treasures of Darius were taken and 
Alexander erected a great palace. Bronze 
swords, cups and pieces of sculpture have 
been unearthed and it is supposed there 
are vast stores of other remains awaiting 
the tool and patience of the excavator. 
The famous Sultan Saladin took up his 
residence here in 1184 and doubtless many 
relics of his royal time will be discovered. 

The remains of the city of Pumbaditha 
have been identified with the immense 
mound of Abnar some twenty miles from 



122 LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 

Babylon, on the banks of the Euphrates. 
This was the centre of Jewish scholarship 
during the Babylonian exile. One of the 
great schools in which the Talmud was 
composed was located here. The great 
psalm, “ By the waters of Babylon, we sat 
down and wept,” was also composed on 
this spot, and here, too, Jeremiah and Isaiah 
thundered their impassioned eloquence. 
Broken tombs and a few inscribed bowls 
have been brought to light. Probably the 
original scrolls of the Talmud will be 
found here. Several curiously wrought 
vases and ruins have been also unearthed. 

Several monuments bearing inscriptions 
which are sorely puzzling the archaeolo¬ 
gists have recently been unearthed at the 
site of Boghaz-Keni which was the ancient, 
if not original capital, of the mysterious 
people called the Hittites who have been 
for so long a worry to Bible students. 
Archaeology has now revealed the secret 
of this people. There is no doubt they 
were of Mongolian origin, as the monu¬ 
ments just discovered represent them with 
slant eyes and pigtails. No one as yet has 
been able to read the inscriptions. They 
were great warriors, great builders and 
influenced the fate of many of the ancient 
nations. 

In many other places throughout these 
lands, deep students of Biblical lore are 


LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 123; 

pushing on the work of excavation and 
daily adding to our knowledge concerning 
the peoples and nations in whom posterity 
must ever take a vital interest. 

A short time ago, Professor Doerpfeld 
announced to the world that he had dis¬ 
covered on the island of Ithaca, off the 
west coast of Greece, the ruins of the pal¬ 
ace of Ulysses, Homer’s half-mythical hero 
of the Odyssey. The German archaeolo¬ 
gist has traced the different rooms of the 
palace and is convinced that here is the very 
place to which the hero returned after his 
wanderings. Near it several graves were 
found from which were exhumed silver 
amulets, curiously wrought necklaces, 
bronze swords and metal ornaments bear¬ 
ing date 2,000 B. C., which is the date at 
which investigators lay the Siege of Troy. 

If the ruins be really those of the palace 
of Ulysses, some interesting things may be 
found to throw a light on the Homeric 
epic. As the schoolboys know, when 
Ulysses set sail from Troy for home, ad¬ 
verse winds wafted him to the coast of 
Africa and he beat around in the adjacent 
seas and visited islands and spent a con¬ 
siderable time meeting many kinds of curi¬ 
ous and weird adventures, dallying at one 
time with the lotus-eaters, at another brav¬ 
ing the Cyclops, the one-eyed monsters, 
until he arrived at Ithaca where “ he bent 




124 LATEST IN ARCHAEOLOGY 

liis bow and slew the suitors of Penelope, 
his harassed wife.” 

In North America are mounds, earth¬ 
works, burial sites, shell heaps, buildings 
of stone and adobe, pictographs sculptured 
in rocks, stone implements, objects made 
of bone, pottery and other remains which 
arouse the enthusiasm of the archaeologist. 
As the dead were usually buried in Amer¬ 
ica, investigators try to locate the ancient 
cemeteries because, besides skeletons, they 
usually contain implements, pottery and 
ornaments which were buried with the 
corpses The most characteristic imple¬ 
ment of early man in America was the 
grooved axe, which is not found in any 
other country. Stone implements are plen¬ 
tiful everywhere. Knives, arrow-points 
and perforators of chipped stone are found 
in all parts of the continent. Beads and 
shells and pottery are also found in almost 
every State. 

The antiquity of man in Europe has been 
determined in a large measure by archaeo¬ 
logical remains found in caves occupied 
by him in different ages, but the explora¬ 
tion of caves in North America has so far 
failed to reveal traces of different degrees 
of civilization. 


CHAPTER IX 1 

GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 

Primitive Tunneling- -Hoosac Tunnel— 
Croton Aqueduct—Great Alpine Tun¬ 
nels—New York Subway—McAdoo 
Tunnels—How Tunnels are Built. 

The art of tunnel construction ranks 
among the very oldest in the world, if not 
the oldest, for almost from the beginning 
of his advent on the earth man has been 
tunneling and boring and making holes in 
the ground. Even in pre-historic time, 
the ages of which we have neither record 
nor tradition, primitive man scooped out 
for himself hollows in the sides of hills, 
and mountains, as is evidenced by geologi¬ 
cal formations and by the fossils that have 
been unearthed. The forming of these 
hollows and holes was no indication of a 
superior intelligence but merely manifested 
the instincts of nature in seeking protec¬ 
tion from the fury of the elements and 
safety from hostile forces such as the on¬ 
slaughts of the wild and terrible beasts, 
that then existed on the earth. 

125 



126 GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 

The Cave Dwellers were real tunnelers, 
inasmuch as in construction of their rude 
dwellings they divided them into several 
compartments and in most cases chose the 
base of hills for their operations, boring 
right through from side to side as recent 
discoveries have verified. 

The ancient Egyptians built extensive 
tunnels for the tombs of their dead as well 
as for the temples of the living. When a 
king of Thebes ascended the throne he 
immediately gave orders for his tomb to be 
cut out of the solid rock. A separate pas¬ 
sage or gallery led to the tomb along which 
he was to be borne in death to the final 
resting place. Some of the tunnels lead¬ 
ing to the mausoleums of the ancient 
Egyptian kings were upwards of a thou¬ 
sand feet in length, hewn out of the hard 
solid rock. A similar custom prevailed in 
Assyria, Mesopotamia, Persia and India. 

The early Assyrians built a tunnel under 
the Euphrates river which was 12 feet wide 
by 15 high. The course of the river was 
diverted until the tunnel was built, then the 
waters were turned into their former chan¬ 
nel, therefore it was not really a suba¬ 
queous tunnel. 

The sinking of tunnels under water was 
to be one of the triumphs of modern sci¬ 
ence. 

Unquestionably the Romans were the 




GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 127 

greatest engineers of ancient times. Much 
of their masonry work has withstood the 
disintegrating hand of time and is as solid 
and strong to-day as when first erected. 

The “ Fire-setting ” method of tunnel¬ 
ing was originated by them, and they also 
developed the familiar principle of prose¬ 
cuting the work at several points at the 
same time by means of vertical shafts. 
They heated the rock to be excavated by 
great fires built against the face of it. 
When a very high temperature was 
reached they turned streams of cold water 
on the heated stone with the result that 
great portions were disintegrated and fell 
off under the action of the water. The 
Romans being good chemists knew the ef¬ 
fect of vinegar on lime, therefore when 
they encountered calcareous rock instead 
of water they used vinegar which very 
readily split up and disintegrated this kind 
of obstruction. The work of tunneling 
was very severe on the laborers, but the 
Romans did not care, for nearly all the 
workmen were slaves and regarded in no 
better light than so many cattle. One of 
the most notable tunnels constructed by 
the old Romans was that between Naples 
and Pozzuoli through the Posilipo Hills. 
It was excavated through volcanic tufa and 
was 3,000 feet long, 25 feet wide, and of 
the pointed arch style. The longest of the 









128 GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 


Roman tunnels, 3J miles, was built to drain 
Lake Fucino. It was driven through cal¬ 
careous rock and is said to have cost the 
labor of 30,000 men for 11 years. 

Only hand labor was employed by the 
ancient people in their tunnel work. In 
soft ground the tools used were picks, 
shovels and scoops, but for rock work they 
had a greater variety. The ancient Egyp¬ 
tians besides the hammer, chisel and wedges 
had tube drills and saws provided with cut¬ 
ting edges of corundum or other hard 
gritty material. 

For centuries there was no progress in 
the art of tunneling. On the contrary 
there was a decline from the earlier con¬ 
struction until late in the 17th century 
when gunpowder came into use as an ex¬ 
plosive in blasting rock. The first applica¬ 
tion of gunpowder was probably at Malpas, 
France, 1679-1681, in the construction of 
the tunnel on the line of the Languedoc 
Canal 510 feet long, 22 feet wide and 29 
feet high. 

It was not until the beginning of the 
nineteenth century that the art of tunnel 
construction, through sand, wet ground or 
under rivers was undertaken so as to come 
rightly under the head of practical engi¬ 
neering. In 1803 a tunnel was built 
through very soft soil for the San Quentin 
Canal in France. Timbering or strutting 


GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 129 

was employed to support the walls and 
roof of the excavation as fast as the earth 
was removed and the masonry lining was 
built closely following it. (From the expe¬ 
rience gained in this tunnel were developed 
the various systems of soft ground sub¬ 
terranean tunneling in practice at the pres¬ 
ent day 

The first tunnel of any extent built in 
the United States was that known as the 
Auburn Tunnel near Auburn, Pa., for the 
water transportation of coal. It was sev¬ 
eral hundred feet long, 22 feet wide and 15 
feet high. The first railroad tunnel in 
America was also in Pennsylvania on the 
Allegheny-Portage Railroad, built in 1818- 
1821. It was 901 feet long, 25 feet wide 
and 21 feet high. 

What may be called the epoch making 
tunnel, the construction of which first in¬ 
troduced high explosives and power drills 
in this country, was the Hoosac in Massa¬ 
chusetts commenced in 1854 and after 
many interruptions brought to completion 
in 1876. It is a double-track tunnel nearly 
5 miles in length. It was quickly followed 
by the commencement of the Erie tunnel 
through Bergen Hill near Hoboken, N. J. 
This tunnel was commenced in 1855 and 
finished in 1861. It is 4,400 feet long, 28 
feet wide and 21 feet high. Other re¬ 
markable engineering feats of this kind in 


130 GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 

America are the Croton Aqueduct Tunnel, 
the Hudson River Tunnel, and the New 
York Subway. 

The great rock tunnels of Europe are 
the four Alpine cuts known as Mont Cenis, 
St. Gothard, the Arlberg and the Simplon. 
The Mont Cenis is probably the most fa¬ 
mous because at the time of its construc¬ 
tion it was regarded as the greatest engi¬ 
neering achievement of the modern world, 
yet it is only a simple tunnel 8 miles long, 
while the Simplon is a double tunnel, each 
bore of which is I2\ miles. The chief en¬ 
gineer of the Mont Cenis tunnel was M. 
Sommeiler, the man who devised the first 
power drill ever used in such work. In 
addition to the power drill the building of 
this tunnel induced the invention of appa¬ 
ratus to suck up foul air, the air com¬ 
pressor, the turbine and several other con¬ 
trivances and appliances in use at the pres¬ 
ent time. 

Great strides in modern tunneling de¬ 
veloped the “ shield ” and brought metal 
lining into service. The shield was in¬ 
vented and first used by Sir M. I. Brunei, 
a London engineer, in excavating the tun¬ 
nel under the River Thames, begun in 
1825 and finished in 1841. In 1869 another 
English engineer, Peter Barlow, used an 
iron lining in connection with a shield in 
driving the second tunnel under the Thames 


GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 131 

at London. From a use of the shield and 
metal lining has grown the present system 
of tunneling which is now universally 
known as the shield system. 

Great advancement has been made in the 
past few years in the nature and composi¬ 
tion of explosives as well as in the form 
of motive power employed in blasting. 
Powerful chemical compositions, such as 
nitroglycerine and its compounds, such as 
dynamite, etc., have supplanted gunpowder, 
and electricity, is now almost invariably 
the firing agent. It also serves many other 
purposes in the work, illumination, supply¬ 
ing power for hoisting and excavating 
machinery, driving rock drills, and operat¬ 
ing ventilating fans, etc. In this field, in 
fact, as everywhere else in the mechanical 
arts, the electric current is playing a lead¬ 
ing part. 

To the English engineer, Peter Barlow, 
above mentioned, must be given the credit 
of bringing into use the first really service¬ 
able circular shield for soft ground tunnel¬ 
ing. In 1865 he took out a patent for such 
a shield with a cylindrical cast iron lining 
for the completed tunnel. Of course James 
Henry Greathead very materially improved 
the shield, so much so indeed that the pres¬ 
ent system of tunneling by means of cir¬ 
cular shields is called the Greathead not the 
Barlow system- Greathead and Barlow 



133 GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 


entered into a partnership in 1869. They 
constructed the tunnel under the Tower of 
London 1,350 feet in length and seven feet 
in diameter which penetrated compact clay 
and was completed within a period of eleven 
months. This was a remarkable record in 
tunnel building for the time and won for 
these eminent engineers a world wide fame. 
From thenceforth their system came into 
vogue in all soft soil and subaqueous tun¬ 
neling. Except for the development in 
steel apparatus and the introduction of elec¬ 
tricity as a motive agent, there has not 
been such a great improvement on the 
Greathead shield as one would naturally 
expect in thirty years. 

The method of excavating a tunnel de¬ 
pends altogether on the nature of the ob¬ 
struction to be removed for the passage. 
In the case of solid rock the work is slow 
but simple; dry, hard, firm earth is much 
the same as rock. The difficulties of tunnel¬ 
ing lie in the soft ground, subaqueous mud. 
silt, quicksand, or any treacherous soil of 
a shifting, unsteady composition. 

When the rock is to be removed it is 
customary to begin the work in sections of 
which there may be seven or eight. First 
one section is excavated, then another and 
so on to completion. The order of the 
sections depends upon the kind of rock and 
upon the time allotted for the job and sev- 


GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 133 

eral other circumstances known to the en¬ 
gineer. If the first section attacked be at 
the top immediately beneath the arch of the 
proposed tunnel, next to the overlying 
matter, it is called a heading, but if the 
first cutting takes place at the bottom of 
the rock to form the base of the tunnel it 
is called a drift. 

Driving a heading is the most difficult 
operation of rock tunneling. Sometimes a 
heading is driven a couple of thousand feet 
ahead of the other sections. In soft rock 
it is often necessary to use timber props as 
the work proceeds and follow up the ex¬ 
cavating by lining roof and sides with 
brick, stone or concrete. 

The rock is dislodged by blasting, the 
holes being drilled with compressed air, 
water force or electricity, and, as has been 
said, powerful explosives are used, nitro¬ 
glycerine or some nitro-compound being 
the most common. Many charges can be 
electrically fired at the same time. If the 
tunnel is to be long, shafts are sunk at in¬ 
tervals in order to attack the work at sev¬ 
eral places at once. Sometimes these shafts 
are lined and left open when the tunnel is 
completed for purposes of ventilation. 

In soft ground and subaqueous soil the 
“ shield ” is the chief apparatus used in 
tunneling. The most up-to-date appliance 
of this kind was that used in constructing 


134 GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 

the tunnels connecting New York City with 
New Jersey under the Hudson River. It 
consisted of a cylindrical shell of steel of 
the diameter of the excavation to be made. 
This was provided with a cutting edge of 
cast steel made up of assembled segments. 
Within the shell was arranged a vertical 
bulkhead provided with a number of doors 
to permit the passage of workmen, tools 
and explosives. The shell extended to the 
rear of the bulkhead forming what was 
known as the “ tail.” The lining was erected 
within this tail and consisted of steel plates 
lined with masonry. The whole arrange¬ 
ment was in effect a gigantic circular bis¬ 
cuit cutter which was forced through the 
earth. 

The tail thus continually enveloped the 
last constructed portion of this permanent 
lining. The actual excavation took place 
in advance of the cutting edge. The 
method of accomplishing this, varied with 
conditions. At times thp material would 
be rock for a few feet from the bottom, 
overlaid with soft earth. In such case the 
latter would be first excavated and then the 
roof would be supported by temporary 
timbers, after which the rock portion would 
be attacked. When the workmen had ex¬ 
cavated the material in front of the shield 
it was passed through the heavy steel plate 
diaphragm in center of the shell out to the 


GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 135 

rear and the shield was then moved for¬ 
ward so as to bring its front again up to 
the face of the excavation. As the shell 
was very unwieldy, weighing about eighty 
tons, and, moreover, as the friction or press¬ 
ure of the surrounding material on its side 
had to be overcome it was a very difficult 
matter to move it forward and a great force 
had to be expended to do so. This force 
was exerted by means of hydraulic jacks so 
devised and placed around the circumfer¬ 
ence of the diaphragm as to push against 
the completed steel plate lining of the tun¬ 
nel. There were sixteen of these jacks 
employed with cylinders eight inches in 
diameter and they exerted a pressure of 
from one thousand to four thousand pounds 
per square inch. By such means the shield 
was pushed ahead as soon as room was 
made in front for another move. 

The purpose of the shield is to prevent 
the inrush of water and soft material while 
excavating is going on; the diaphragm of 
the shields acts as a bulkhead and the open¬ 
ings in it are so devised as to be quickly 
closed if necessary. The extension of the 
shield in front of the diaphragm is designed 
to prevent the falling or flowing in of the 
exposed face of the new excavation. 

The extension of the shell back from 
the diaphragm is for the purpose of afford¬ 
ing opportunity to put in place the finished 




136 GREAT TUNNELS OF TEE WORLD 


tunnel lining whatever it may be, masonry, 
cast-iron, cast-iron and masonry, or steel 
plates and masonry. Where the material 
is saturated with water as is the case in 
all subaqueous tunneling it is necessary to 
use compressed air in connection with the 
shield. The intensity of air pressure is 
determined by the depth of the tunnel be¬ 
low the surface of the water above it. The 
tunnelers work in what are called caissons 
to which they have access through an air 
lock. In many cases quick transition from 
the compressed air in the caisson to the 
open air at the surface results fatally to 
the workers. The caisson disease is popu¬ 
larly called “ the bends ” a kind of paraly¬ 
sis which is more or less baffling to medical 
science. Some men are able to bear a 
greater pressure than others. It depends 
on the natural stamina of the worker and 
his state of health. The further down the 
greater the pressure. The normal atmos¬ 
pheric pressure at the surface is about 
fourteen pounds to the square inch. Men 
in normal health should be able to stand 
a pressure of seventy-six pounds to the 
square inch and this would call for a depth 
of 178 feet under water surface, which 
far exceeds any depth worked under com¬ 
pressed air. For a long time one hundred 
feet were regarded as a maximum depth 
and at that depth men were not permitted 


GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 137 

( to work more than an hour in one shift. 
The ordinary subaqueous tunnel pressure 
is about forty-five pounds and this corres¬ 
ponds to a head of 104 feet. In working 
in the Hudson Tunnels the pressure was 
scarcely ever above thirty-three pounds, yet 
many suffered from the “ bends.” 

What is called a freezing method is now 
proposed to overcome the water in soft 
earth tunneling. Its chief feature is the ex¬ 
cavating first of a sm'all central tunnel to 
be used as a refrigerating chamber or ice 
box in freezing the surrounding material 
solid so that it can be dug out or blasted 
out in chunks the same as rock. It is very 
doubtful however, if such a plan is feasible. 

The greatest partly subaqueous tunnels 
in the world are now to be found in the 
vicinity of New York. The first to be 
opened to the public is known as the Sub¬ 
way and extends from the northern limits 
of the City in Westchester County to 
Brooklyn. The oldest, however, of the 
New York tunnels counting from its origin 
is the “ McAdoo ” tunnel from Christopher 
Street, in Manhattan Borough, under the 
Hudson to Hoboken. This was begun in 
1880 and continued at intervals as funds 
could be obtained until 1890, when the 
work was abandoned after about two 
thousand feet had been constructed. 
For a number of years the tunnel re- 






138 GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 

mained full of water until it was finally 
acquired by the Hudson Companies who 
completed and opened it to the public 
in 1908. Another tunnel to the foot of 
Cortlandt Street was constructed by the 
same concern and opened in 1909. Both 
tunnels consist of parallel but separate 
tubes. The railway tunnels to carry the 
Pennsylvania R. R. under the Hudson into 
New York and thence under the East River 
to Long Island have been finished and are 
great triumphs of engineering skill besides 
making .New York the most perfectly 
equipped city in the world as far as transit 
is concerned. 

The greatest proppsed subaqueous tun¬ 
nel is that intended to connect England 
with France under the English Channel a 
distance of twenty-one miles. Time and 
again the British Parliament has rejected 
proposals through fear that such a tunnel 
would afford a ready means of invasion 
from a foreign enemy. However, it is al¬ 
most sure to be built. Another projected 
British tunnel is one which will link Ireland 
and Scotland under the Irish Sea. If this 
is carried out then indeed the Emerald Isle 
will be one with Britain in spite of her un¬ 
willingness for such a close association. 

England already possesses a famous sub¬ 
aqueous tunnel in that known as the Severn 
tunnel under the river of that name. It 


GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 139 

is four and a half miles long, although it 
was built largely through rock. Water 
gave much trouble in its construction which 
occupied thirteen years from 1873 to 1886. 
Pumps were employed to raise the water 
through a side heading connecting with a 
shaft twenty-nine feet in diameter. The 
greatest amount of water raised concur¬ 
rently was twenty-seven million gallons in 
twenty-four hours but the pumps had a 
capacity of sixty-six million gallons for the 
same time. 

The greatest tunnel in Europe is the 
Simplon which connects Switzerland with 
Italy under the Simplon Pass in the Alps. 
It has two bores twelve and one-fourth 
miles each and at places it is one and one- 
half miles below the surface. The St. 
Gothard also connecting Switzerland and 
Italy under the lofty peak of the Col de 
St. Gothard is nine and one-fourth miles 
in length. The third great Alpine tunnel, 
the Arlberg, which is six and one-half miles 
long, forms a part of the Austrian railway 
between Innsbruck and Bluedenz in the 
Tyrol and connects westward with the 
Swiss railroads and southward with those 
of Italy. 

Two great tunnels at the present time 
are being constructed in the United States, 
one of these which is piercing the backbone 
of the Rockies is on the Atlantic and Pacific 







140 GREAT TUNNELS OF THE WORLD 

railway. It begins near Georgetown, will 
pass under Gray’s peak and come out near 
Decatur, Colorado, in all a length of twelve 
miles. The other American undertaking is 
a tunnel under the famous Pike’s Peak in 
Colorado which when completed will be 
twenty miles long. 

It can clearly be seen that in the way of 
tunnel engineering Uncle Sam is not a 
whit behind his European competitors. 




CHAPTER X 

ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 

Electrically Equipped Houses—Cooking by 

Electricity—Comforts and Conveniences. 

Science has now pressed the invisible 
wizard of electrcity into doing almost every 
household duty from cleaning the 
windows to cooking the dinner. There 
are many houses now so thoroughly 
equipped with electricity from top to 
bottom that one servant is able to do 
what formerly required the service of sev¬ 
eral, and in some houses servants seem to 
be needed hardly at all, the mistresses doing 
their own cooking, ironing, and washing by 
means of electricity. 

In respect to taking advantage of elec¬ 
tricity to perform the duties of the house¬ 
hold our friends in Europe were ahead of 
us, though America is pre-eminently the 
land of electricity—the natal home of the 
science. We are waking up, however, to 
the domestic utility of this agent and 

141 


142 ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 

throughout the country aft present there are 
numbers of homes in which electricity is 
employed to perform almost every task au¬ 
tomatically from feeding the baby to the 
crimping of my lady’s hair in her scented 
boudoir. 

There is now no longer any use for chim¬ 
neys on electrically equipped houses, for the 
fires have been eliminated and all heat and 
light drawn from the electric street mains. 
A description of one of these houses is most 
interesting as showing what really can be 
accomplished by this wonderful source of 
power. 

Before the visitor to such a house reaches 
the gate or front door his approach is made 
known by an annunciator in the hall, which 
is connected with a hidden plate in the en¬ 
trance path, which when pressed by the 
feet of the visitor charges the wire of the 
annunciator. A voice comes through the 
horn of a phonograph asking him what he 
wishes and telling him, to reply through the 
telephone which hangs at the side of the 
door. When he has made his wants 
known, if he is welcome or desired, there is 
a click and the door opens. As he enters 
an electrically operated door mat cleans his 
shoes and if he is aware of the equipments 
of the house, he can have his clothes 
brushed by an automatic brush attached to 
the hat-rack in the hall. An escalator or 


ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 143 

endless stairway brings him to the first floor 
where he is met by the host who conducts 
him to the den sacred to himself. If he 
wishes a preprandial cigar, the host touches 
a segment of the wall, apparently no differ¬ 
ent in appearance from the surrounding 
surface, and a complete cigar outfit shoots 
out to within reach of the guest. When 
the gong announces dinner he is conducted 
to the dining hall where probably the uses 
to which electricity can be put are better 
exemplified than in any other part of the 
house. Between this room and the kitchen 
there is a perfect electric understanding. 
The apartments are so arranged that elec¬ 
tric dumbwaiter service is operated be¬ 
tween the centre of the dining table 
itself and the serving table in the 
kitchen. The latter is equipped with 
an electric range provided with elec¬ 
trically heated ovens, broilers, veg¬ 
etable cookers, saucepans, dishes, etc., suffi¬ 
cient for the preparation of the most elab¬ 
orate house banquet. The chef or cook in 
charge of the kitchen prepares each dish in 
its proper oven and has it ready waiting on 
the electric elevator at the appointed time 
when the host and his guest or guests, or 
family, as the case may be, are seated at the 
dining table. The host or whoever pre¬ 
sides at the head of the table merely touches 
a button concealed on the side of the ma- 






144 ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 


hogany and the elevator instantly appears 
through a trap-door in the table, which is 
ordinarily closed by two silver covers which 
look like a tray. In this way the dish seem¬ 
ingly miraculously appears right on top of 
the table. When each guest is served it re¬ 
turns; to the kitchen by the way it came and 
a second course is brought on the table in a 
similar manner and so on until the dinner 
is fully served. Fruits and flowers taste¬ 
fully arranged adorn the centre of the din¬ 
ing table and minute electric incandescent 
lamps of various colors are concealed in the 
roses and petals and these give a very pretty 
effect, especially at night. 

Beneath the table nothing is to be seen 
but two nickel-plated bars which serve to 
guide the elevators. 

Down in the kitchen the cooking is car¬ 
ried on almost mechanically by means of an 
electric clock controlling the heating cir¬ 
cuits to the various utensils. The cook, 
knowing just how long each dish will re¬ 
quire to be cooked, turns on the current at 
the proper time and then sets the clock to 
automatically disconnect that utensil when 
sufficient time, so many minutes to the 
pound, has elapsed. When this occurs a 
little electric bell rings, calling attention to 
the fact, that the heat has been shut off. 

Another kitchen accessory is a rotating 
table on which are mounted various house- 


ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 145 


hold machines such as meat choppers, 
cream whippers, egg beaters and other ap¬ 
paratus all electrically operated. 

There is also an electric dishwasher and 
dryer and plate rack manipulator which 
places the dishes in position when clean 
and dried. 

The advantages of cooking by electricity 
are apparent to all who have tested them. 
Food cooked in an electric baking oven is 
much superior than when cooked by any 
other method because of the better heat 
regulation and the utter cleanliness, there 
being absolutely no dust whatever as in the 
case when coal is used. The electric oven 
does not increase the temperature nor does 
it exhaust the pure air in the room by burn¬ 
ing up the oxygen. The time required for 
cooking is about the same as with coal. 

The perfect cleanliness of an electric plate 
warmer is sufficient to warrant its use. It 
keeps dishes at a uniform temperature and 
the food does not get scorched and become 
tough. 

Steaks prepared on electric gridirons and 
broilers are really delicious as they are 
evenly done throughout and retain all the 
natural juices of the meat; there is no odor 
of gas or of the fire and portions done to a 
crisp while others are raw on the inside. 
In toasting there is no danger of the bread 
burning on one side more than on the other. 




146 ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 

or of its burning on either side and a couple 
of dozen slices can be done together on an 
ordinary instrument at the same time. The 
electric diskstove, flat on the top, like a ball 
cut in two, can be also utilized as a toaster 
or for heating any kettles or pots or vessels 
with flat bottoms. 

Very appetizing waffles are made with 
electric waffle irons, because the bottom 
and top irons are uniformly heated, so that 
the irons cook the waffles from both sides 
at the same time. 

Electric potato peeling machines consist 
of a stationary cylinder opened at the top 
for the reception of the potatoes and having 
a revolving disk at the bottom. The cylin¬ 
der has a rough surface or is coated with 
diamond flint, so that when the disk revolves 
the potatoes are thrown against the sides 
of the cylinder and the skin is scraped off. 
There is no deep cutting as when peeled 
by a knife, therefore, much waste is avoided. 
While the potatoes are being scraped, a 
stream of water plays upon them taking 
away the skins and thoroughly cleansing the 
tubers. 

Among other electric labor savers con¬ 
nected with the culinary department may 
be mentioned floor-scrubbers, dish-washers, 
coffee-grinders, meat choppers, dough-mix¬ 
ers and cutlery-polishers, all of which give 
complete satisfaction at a paltry cost and 


ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 147 


save much time and labor. A small motor 
pan drive any of these instruments or sev¬ 
eral can be attached and run by the same 
motor. The operation of an ordinary snap 
switch will supply energy to electric water- 
heaters attached to the kitchen boiler or to 
the faucet. The instantaneous water heater 
also purifies the water by killing the bacteria 
contained in it. 

The electric tea kettle makes a brew to 
charm the heart of a connossieur. In fact 
all cooking done by electricity whether it 
is the frying of an egg or the roasting of 
a steak is superior in every way to the old 
methods and what accentuates its use is the 
cleanliness with which it can be performed. 
And it should be taken into consideration 
that in' electric cooking there is no bending 
over hot stoves and ranges or a stuffy evil 
smelling smoky atmosphere, but on the con¬ 
trary, fresh air, cleanliness and coolness 
which make cooking not the drudgery it 
has ever been, but a real pleasure. 

Let us take a glance at the laundry in 
the electrically equipped house. There is a 
large tub with a wringer attached to it and 
a simple mechanism by which a small motor 
can either be connected with the tub or the 
wringer as required. The washing is per¬ 
formed entirely by the motor and in a way 
prevents the wear and tear associated with 
the old method of scrubbing and rubbing 



148 ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 

done at the expense of much “ elbow 
grease.” The! motor turns the tub back and 
forth and in this way the soapy water pene¬ 
trates the clothes, thus removing the dirt 
without injuring or tearing the fabric. In 
the old way, the clothes were moved up and 
down in the water and torn and worn in 
the process. By the new way it is the water 
which moves while the clothes remain sta¬ 
tionary. When the clothes are thoroughly 
washed, the motor is attached to the wringer 
and they are passed through it; they are 
completely dried by a specially constructed 
electric fan. Whatever garments are to be 
ironed are separated and fed to a steel roll 
mangle operated by a motor which gives 
them a beautiful finish. The electric flat 
iron plays also an important part in the 
laundry as it is clean and never gets too hot 
nor too cold and there is no rushing back 
to replenish the heaters. One is not obliged 
to remain in the room with a hot stove and 
suffer the inconveniences. No heat is felt 
at all from the iron as it is all concentrated 
on the bottom surface. It is a regular bless¬ 
ing to the laundress especially in hot 
weather. There is a growing demand in all 
parts of the country for these electric flat¬ 
irons. 

Electricity plays an important role in the 
parlor and drawing-room. The electric fire¬ 
place throws out a ruddy glow, a perfect 


ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 149 

imitation of the wide-open old-fashioned 
fireplaces of the days of our grandmothers. 
There are small grooves at certain sections 
in the flooring over which chairs and 
couches can be brought to a desired position. 
When the master drops into his favorite 
chair by the fireplace if he wishes a tune to 
soothe his jangled nerves, there is an elec¬ 
tric attachment to the piano and he can 
adjust it to get the air of his choice with¬ 
out having to ask any one to play for him. 
In the drawing-room an electric fountain 
may be playing, its jets reflecting the 
prismatic colors of the rainbow as the 
waters fall in iridescent sparkle among 
the lights. Such a fountain is com¬ 
posed of a small electric motor and a 
centrifugal pump, the latter being placed 
in the interior of a basin and connected 
directly to the motor shaft. The pump 
receives the water from the basin and con¬ 
veys it through pipes and a number of small 
nozzles thus producing cascades. The water 
falling upon an art glass dome, beneath 
which are small incandescent lamps, returns 
to the basin and thence again to the pump. 
There is no necessity of filling the fountain 
until the water gets low through evapora¬ 
tion. When the lights are not in colored 
glass, the water may be colored and this 
gives the same effect. To produce the play 
of the fountain and its effects, it is only 




15Q ELECTRICITY IN THE HOUSEHOLD 

necessary to connect it to any circuit and 
turn on the switch. The dome revolves by 
means of a jet of water driven against 
flanges on the under side of the rim of the 
dome and in this way beautiful and pris¬ 
matic effects are produced. The motor is 
noiseless in operation. In addition to the 
pretty effect the fountain serves to cool and 
moisten the air of the room. 

The sleeping chambers are thoroughly 
equipped. Not only the rooms may be 
heated by electricity but the beds themselves. 
An electric pad consisting of a flexible resis¬ 
tance covered with soft felt is connected by 
a conductor cord to a plug and is used for 
heating beds or if the occupant is suffering 
from rheumatism or indigestion or any 
intestinal pain this pad can be used in the 
place of the hot water bottle and gives 
greater satisfaction. There is a heat con¬ 
trolling device and the circuit can be turned 
on or off at will. 

There are many more curious devices in 
the electrically equipped house which could 
they have been exhibited a generation or so 
ago, would have condemned the owner as 
a sorcerer and necromancer of the dark 
ages, but which now only place him in the 
category of the smart ones who are up to 
date and take advantage of the science and 
progress of the time. 




CHAPTER XI 


HARNESSING THE WATER-FALL 

Electric Energy—High Pressure—Trans¬ 
formers—Development of Water-power. 

The electrical transmission of power is 
exemplified in everything which is based 
on the generation of electricity. The or¬ 
dinary electric light is power coming from 
a generator in the building or a public 
street-dynamo. 

However, when we talk in general 
terms of electric transmission we mean 
the transmission of energy on a large 
scale by means of overhead or under¬ 
ground conductors to a considerable dis¬ 
tance and the transformation of this energy 
into light and heat and chemical or me¬ 
chanical power to carry on the processes 
of work and industry. When the power 
or energy is conveyed a long distance 
from the generator, say over 30 miles or 
more, we usually speak of the system of 
supply as long distance transmission of 
electric energy. In many cases power is 

151 


152 


HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS 


conveyed over distances of 200 miles and 
more. When water power is available as 
at Niagara, the distance to which electric 
energy can be transmitted is considerably 
increased. 

The distance to a great extent depends 
on the cost of coal required for generation 
at the distributing point and on the amount 
of energy demanded at the receiving point. 
Of course the farther the distance the 
higher must be the voltage pressure. 

Electrical engineers say that under proper 
conditions electric energy may be transmit¬ 
ted in large quantity to a distance of 500 
miles and more at a pressure of about 170,- 
000 volts. If such right conditions be estab¬ 
lished then New York, Chicago and several 
other of our large cities can get their power 
from Niagara. 

In our cities and towns where the current 
has only to go a short distance from the 
power house, the conductors are generally 
placed in cables underground and the max¬ 
imum electro-motive force scarcely ever 
exceeds 11,000 volts. This pressure is gen¬ 
erated by a steam-driven alternating-current 
generator and is transmitted over the con¬ 
ductors to sub-stations, where by means of 
step-down transformers, the pressure is 
dropped to, say, 600 volts alternating cur¬ 
rent which by rotary converters is turned 
into direct current for the street mains, for 


HARNESSING THE WA TER-FALLS 153 


feeders of railways and for charging storage 
batteries which in turn give out direct cur¬ 
rent at times of heavy demand. 

That electric transmission of energy to 
long distances may be successfully carried 
out transformers are necessary for raising 
the pressure on the transmission line and 
for reducing it at the points of distribution. 
The transformer consists of a magnetic cir¬ 
cuit of laminated iron or mild steel inter¬ 
linked with two electric circuits, one, the 
primary, receiving electrical energy and the 
other the secondary, delivering it to the con¬ 
sumer. The effect of the iron is to make 
as many as possible of the lines of force 
set up by the primary current, cut the sec¬ 
ondary winding and there set up an electro¬ 
motive force of the same frequency but 
different voltage. 

The transformer has made long distance 
the actual achievement that it is. It is this 
apparatus that brought the mountain to 
Mohammed. Without it high pressure 
would be impossible and it is on high pres¬ 
sure that success of long distance transmis¬ 
sion depends. 

To convey electricity to distant centres 
at a low pressure would require thousands 
of dollars in copper cables alone as conduc¬ 
tors. To illustrate the service of the trans¬ 
former in electricity it is only necessary to 
consider water power at a low pressure. In 




154 HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS 

such a case the water can only be transmit¬ 
ted at slow speed and through great open¬ 
ings, like dams or large canals, and withal 
the force is weak and of little practical 
efficiency, whereas under high pressure a 
small quantity can be forced through a small 
pipe and create an energy beyond compar¬ 
ison to that developed when under low pres¬ 
sure. 

The transformer raises the voltage and 
sends the electrical current under high 
pressure over a small wire and so great is 
this pressure that thousands of horse-power 
can be sent to great distances over small 
wires with very little loss. 

Water power is now changed to electrical 
power and transmitted over slender copper 
wires to the great manufacturing 'centres 
of our country to turn the wheels of indus¬ 
try and give employment to thousands. 

Nearly one hundred cities in the United 
States alone are to-day using electricity sup¬ 
plied by transmitted water-power. Ten 
years ago Niagara Falls were regarded only 
as a great natural curiosity of interest only 
to the sightseer, to-day those Falls distrib¬ 
ute over 100,000 horse-power to Buffalo, 
Syracuse, Rochester, Toronto and several 
smaller cities and towns. Wild Niagara 
has at last indeed been harnessed to the 
servitude of man. Spier Falls north of 




HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS IBS 

Saratoga, practically unheard of before, is 
now supplying electricity to the industrial 
communities of Schenectady, Troy, Amster¬ 
dam, Albany and half a dozen or so smaller 
towns. 

Rivers and dams, lakes and falls in all 
parts of the country are being utilized to 
supply energy, though at the present time 
only about one-fortieth of the horse-power 
available through this agent is being made 
productive. The water conditions of the 
United States are so favorable that 200,000,- 
000 horse-power could be easily developed, 
but as it is we have barely enough harnessed 
to supply 5 million horse-power. 

Eighty per cent, of the power used 'at the 
present time is produced from fuel. This 
percentage is sure to decrease in the future 
for fuel will become scarcer and the high 
cost will drive fuel power altogether out of 
the market. 

New York State has the largest water 
power development in the Union, the total 
being 885,862 horse-power; this fact is 
chiefly owing to the energy developed by 
Niagara. 

The second State in water-power develop¬ 
ment is California, the total development 
being 466,774 horse-power over 1,070 
wheels or a unit installation of about 436 

H. P. 


156 HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS 


The third State is Maine with 343,096 
Torse-power, over 2,707 wheels or an aver¬ 
age of about 123 horse-power per wheel. 

Lack of space makes it impossible to enter 
upon a detailed description of the structural 
and mechanical features of the various 
plants and how they were operated for the 
purpose of turning water into an electric 
current. The best that can be done is to 
outline the most noteworthy features which 
typify the various situations under which 
power plants are developed and operated. 

The water power available under any con¬ 
dition depends principally upon two fac¬ 
tors : First, the amount of fall or hydrostatic 
head on the wheels; second, the amount of 
water that can be turned over the wheels. 
The conditions vary according to place, 
there are all kinds of fall and flow. 
To develop a high power it is neces¬ 
sary to discharge a large volume of 
water upon properly designed wheels. 
In many of the western plants where 
only a small amount of water is avail¬ 
able there is a great fall to make up for the 
larger volume in force coming down upon 
the wheels. So far as actual energy is con¬ 
cerned it makes no difference whether we 
develop a certain amount of power by al¬ 
lowing twenty cubic feet of water per sec¬ 
ond to fall a distance of one foot or allow 


HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS 157 


one cubic foot of water per second to fall 
a distance of twenty feet. 

In one place we may have a plant devel¬ 
oping say 10,000 horse-power with a fall of 
anywhere from twenty to forty feet and in 
another place a plant of the same capacity 
with a fall of 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 feet. In 
the former case the short fall is compen¬ 
sated by a great volume of water to produce 
such a horse-power, while in the latter con¬ 
verse conditions prevail. In many cases 
the power house is located some distance 
from the source of supply and from the 
point where the water is diverted from its 
course by artificial means. 

The Shawinigan Falls of St. Maurice 
river in Canada occur at two points a short 
distance apart, the fall at one point being 
about 50 and at the other 100 feet high. A 
canal 1,000 feet long takes water from the 
river above the upper of these falls and 
delivers it near to the electric power house 
on the river bank below the lower falls. In 
this way a hydrostatic head of 125 feet is 
obtained at the power house. The canal in 
this case ends on high ground 130 feet from 
the power house and the water passes down, 
to the wheels through steel penstocks 9 
feet in diameter. 

In a great many ;cases in level country the 
water power can only be developed by 






158 HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS 

means of such canals or pipe lines and the 
generating stations must be situated away 
from the points where the water is diverted 
from its course. 

In mountainous country where rivers are 
comparatively small and their courses are 
marked by numerous falls and rapids, it is 
generally necessary to utilize the fall of a 
stream through some miles of its length in 
order to get a satisfactory development of 
power. To reach this result rather long 
canals, flumes, or pipe lines must be laid 
to convey the water to the power stations 
and deliver it at high pressure. 

California offers numerous examples of 
electric power development with the water 
that has been carried several miles through 
artificial channels. An illustration of this 
class of work exists at the electric power 
house on the bank of the Mokelumne river 
in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Water is 
supplied to the wheels in this station under 
a head of 1,450 feet through pipes 3,600 feet 
long leading to the top of a near-by hill. To 
reach this hill the water after its diversion 
from the Mokelumne river at the dam, flows 
twenty miles through a canal or ditch and 
then through 3,000 feet of wooden stave 
pipe. Although California ranks second in 
water-power development it is easily the 
first in the number of its stations, and also 
be it said, California was the first to realize 


HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS 


159 


the possibilities of long distance electrical 
energy. The line from the 15,000 horse¬ 
power plant at Colgate in this State to 
San Francisco by way of Mission San 
Jose, where it is supplied with additional 
power, has a length of 232 miles and is 
the longest transmission of electrical en¬ 
ergy in the world. The power house at 
Colgate has a capacity of 11,250 kilowatts 
in generators, but it is uncertain what 
part of the output is transmitted to San 
Francisco, as there are more than 100 sub¬ 
stations on the 1,375 niiles of circuit in 
this system. 

Another system, even greater than the 
foregoing which has just been completed 
is that of the Stanislaus plant in Tuo- 
lumme County, California, from which a 
transmission line on steel towers has been 
run in Tuolumme, Calaveras, San Joaquin, 
Alameda and Contra Costa Counties for 
the delivery of power to mines and to 
the towns lying about San Francisco Bay. 
The rushing riotous waters of the Stan¬ 
islaus wasted for so many centuries have 
been saved by the steel paddles of gigantic 
turbine water wheels and converted into 
electricity which carries with the swiftness 
of thought thousands of horse power en¬ 
ergy to the far away cities and towns to 
be transformed into light and heat and 
power to run street cars and trains and set 


160 HARNESSING THE WATER-FALLS 


in motion the mechanism of mills and fac¬ 
tories and make the looms of industry hum 
with the bustle and activity of life. 

It is said that the greatest long distance 
transmission yet attempted will shortly be 
undertaken in South Africa where it is pro¬ 
posed to draw power from the famous Vic¬ 
toria Falls. The line from the Falls will 
run to Johannesburg and through the Rand, 
a length of 700 miles. It is claimed the 
Falls are capable of developing 300,000 
electric horse power at all times. 

Should this undertaking be accomplished 
it will be a crowning achievement in elec¬ 
trical science. 





CHAPTER XII 


WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 

Dimensions, Displacements, Cost and De¬ 
scription of Battleships—Capacity and 
Speed—Preparing for the Future. 

All modern battleships are of steel con¬ 
struction. The basis of all protection on 
these vessels is the protective deck, which 
is also common to the armored cruiser and 
many varieties of gunboats. This deck is 
of heavy steel covering the whole of the 
vessel a little above the water-line in the 
centre; it slopes down from the centre until 
it meets the sides of the vessel about three 
feet below the water; it extends the entire 
length of the ship and is firmly secured at 
the ends to the heavy stem and stern posts. 
Underneath this deck are the essentials of 
the vessel, the boilers and machinery, the 
magazines and shell rooms, the ammunition 
cells and all the explosive paraphernalia, 
which must be vigilantly safe-guarded 
against the attacks of the enemy. Every 
precaution is taken to insure safety. All 
openings in the protective deck above are 

161 





162 WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 

covered with heavy steel gratings to prevent 
fragments of shell or other combustible 
substances from getting through to the mag¬ 
azine or powder cells. 

The heaviest armor is usually placed at 
the water line because it is this part of the 
ship which is the most vulnerable and open 
to attack and where a shell or projectile 
would do' the most harm. If a hole were 
torn in the side at this place the vessel 
would quickly take in water and sink. On 
this account the armor, is made thick and is 
known as the water-line belt. At the point 
where the protective deck and the ship’s 
side meet, there is a projection or ledge on 
which this armor belt rests. Thus it goes 
down about three feet below the water and 
it extends to the same distance above. 

The barbettes, that is, the parapets sup¬ 
porting the gun turrets, are one forward and 
one aft. They rest upon the protective deck 
at the bottom and extend up about four 
feet above the upper deck. A the top of the 
barbettes, revolving on rollers, are the tur¬ 
rets, sometimes called the hoods, containing 
the guns and the leading mechanism and 
all of the machinery in connection with the 
same. The turret ammunition hoists lead 
up from the magazine below, delivering the 
charges and projectiles for the guns at the 
very breach so that they can be loaded 
immediately. 



WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 


163 


An athwartship line of armor runs from 
the water line to the barbettes, resting upon 
the protective deck. In fact, the space be¬ 
tween the protective and upper deck is so 
closed in with armor, with a barbette at 
each end, that it is like a citadel or fort or 
some redoubt well-guarded from the en¬ 
emy. Resting upon the water-belt and the 
athwartship or diagonal armor, and follow¬ 
ing the same direction is a layer of armor 
usually somewhat thinner which is called 
the lower case-mate armor; it extends up 
to the lower edge of the broadside gun 
ports, and resting upon it in turn is the 
upper case-mate armor, following the same 
direction, and forming the protection for 
the broadside battery. The explosive effect 
of the modern shell is so tremendous that 
were one to get through the upper case¬ 
mate and explode immediately after enter¬ 
ing, it would undoubtedly disable several 
guns and kill their entire crews; it is, 
therefore, usual to isolate each broadside 
gun from its neighbors by light nickel steel 
bulkheads a couple of inches or so thick, 
and to prevent the same disastrous result 
among the guns on the opposite side, a 
fore-and-aft bulkhead of about the same 
thickness is placed on the centre line of the 
ship. Each gun of the broadside battery is 
thus mounted in a space by itself somewhat 
similar to a stall. Abaft the forward turret 





164 WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 

there is a vertical armored tube resting on 
the protective deck and at its upper end is 
the conning* tower, from which the ship is 
worked when in action and which is well 
safe-guarded. 

The tube protects all the mechanical sig¬ 
nalling gear running into the conning tower 
from which communication can be had 
instantly with any part of the vessel. 

To build a battleship that will be practi¬ 
cally unsinkable by the gun fire of an enemy 
it is only necessary to make the water belt 
armor thick enough to resist the shells, mis¬ 
siles and projectiles aimed at it. There is 
another essential that is equally important, 
and that is the protection of the batteries. 
The experience of modern battles has made 
it manifest, that is is impossible for the 
crew to do their work when exposed to a 
hail of shot and shell from a modern battery 
of rapid fire and automatic guns. And so 
in all more recently built battleships and 
armored cruisers and gunboats, the protec¬ 
tion of broadside batteries and exposed 
positions has been increased even at the 
expense of the water-line belt. 

Armor plate has been much improved in 
recent years. During the Civil War the 
armor on our monitors was only an inch 
thick. Through such an armor the projec¬ 
tiles of our time would penetrate as easily 
as a bullet through a pine board. It was the 


WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 165 

development of gun power and projectiles 
that called forth the thick armor, but it was 
soon found that it was impossible for the 
armor to keep pace with the deadliness of 
the guns as it was utterly impossible to 
carry the weight necessary to resist the 
force of impact. Then came the use of spe¬ 
cial plates, the compound armor where a 
hard face to break up the projectile was 
welded to a softer back to give the neces¬ 
sary strength. This was followed by the 
steel armor treated by the Harvey process; 
it was like the compound armor in having a 
hard face and a soft back, but the plates 
were made from a single ingot without any 
welding. 

The Harvey process enabled an enor¬ 
mously greater resistance to be obtained 
with a given weight of armor, but even it 
has been surpassed by the Krupp process 
which enables twelve inches of thickness to 
give the same resistance as fifteen of Har- 
veyized plates. 

The armament or battery of warships is 
divided into two classes, viz., the main and 
the second batteries. The main battery 
comprises the heaviest guns on the ship, 
those firing large shell and armor-piercing 
projectiles, while the second battery consists 
of small rapid fire and machine guns for 
use against torpedo boats or to attack the 
unprotected or lightly protected gun posi- 





366 


WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 


tions of an enemy. The main battery of 
our modern battleships consists usually of 
ten twelve-inch guns, mounted in pairs on 
turrets in the centre of the ship. In addi¬ 
tion to these heavy guns it is usual to mount 
a number of smaller ones of from five to 
eight inches diameter of bore on each 
bro’adside, although sometimes they are 
mounted on turrets like the larger guns. 

A twelve-inch breech-loading gun, fifty 
calibers long and weighing eighty-three 
tons, will propel a shell weighing eight hun¬ 
dred and eighty pounds, by a powder charge 
of six hundred and twenty-four pounds, at a 
velocity of over two thousand six hundred 
and twenty feet per second, giving an 
energy at the muzzle of over forty thousand 
foot-tons and is capable of penetrating at 
the muzzle, forty-five inches of iron. 

During the last few years, very large 
increases have been made in the dimensions, 
displacements and costs of battleships and 
armored cruisers as compared with vessels 
of similar classes previously constructed. 
Both England and the United States have 
constructed enormous war vessels within 
the past decade. The British Dreadnought 
built in nineteen hundred and five has a 
draft of thirty-one feet six inches and a 
displacement of twenty-two thousand and 
two hundred tons. Later, vessels of the 
Dreadnought type have a normal draft of 


WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 167 

twenty-seven feet and a naval displacement 
of eighteen thousand and six hundred tons. 
Armored cruisers of the British Invincible 
class have a draft of twenty-six feet and 
a displacement of seventeen thousand two 
hundred and fifty tons with a thousand tons 
of coal on board. These cruisers have 
engines developing forty-one thousand 
horse-power. 

Within the past two years the United 
States has turned out a few formidable 
battleships, which it is claimed surpass the 
best of those of any other navy in the world. 
The Delaware and North Dakota each have 
a draft of twenty-six feet, eleven inches 
and a displacement of twenty thousand tons. 
Great interest attached to the trials of these 
vessels because they were sister ships fitted 
with different machinery and it was a mat¬ 
ter of much speculation which would 
develop the greater speed. In addition to 
the consideration of the battleship as a 
fighting machine at close quarters, Uncle 
Sam is trying to have her as fleet as an 
ocean greyhound should an enemy heave in 
sight so that the latter would not have 
much opportunity to show his heels to a 
broadside. The Delaware, which has re¬ 
ciprocating engines, exceeded her contract 
speed of twenty-one knots on her runs over 
a measured mile course in Penobscot Bay 
on October 22 and 23, 1909. Three runs 




168 WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 

were made at the rate of nineteen knots, 
three at 20.50 knots, and five at 21.98 
knots. 

The North Dakota is furnished with 


Curtis turbine engines, 
son of the two ships: 

Here is 

a compari- 

North 

Delaware 

Fastest run over meas- 

Dakota 

ured mile. 

Average of five high 

21.98 

22.25 

runs . 

21.44 

21.83 

Full power trial speed 
Full power trial horse- 

21.56 

21.64 

power .28,600. 

Full power trial, coal 
consumption, tons 

31,400. 

per day . 

Nineteen-knot trial 
coal consumption, 

578. 

583. 

tons per day. 

Twelve-knot trial coal 
consumption, tons 

315- 

295* 

per day . 

hi . 

105. 


The Florida, a 21,825 ton boat, was 
launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard 
last May 12. Her sister ship, the Utah, 
took water the previous December at Cam¬ 
den. 

Here is a comparison of the North 
Dakota of 1908 and the Florida of 1910: 












WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 


169 


Length 

Beam 

Draft, Mean 
Displacement 
Coal Supply 
Oil 

Belt Armor 
Turret Armor 
Battery armor 


A r . Dakota 
518 ft. 9 in. 

85 ft. 2\ in. 

26 ft. 11 in. 
20,000 tons 
2,500 tons 
400 tons 
12 in. to 8 in. 

12 inches 

6 in. 


Florida 
521 ft. 6 in. 
88 ft. 2\ in. 
28 ft. 6 in. 
21,825 tons 
2,500 tons 
400 tons 
12 in. to 8 in. 
12 inches 


6 i 


in. 


Smoke stack protection 6 inches 9J inches 
12-inch guns Ten Ten 

5-inch guns Fourteen Sixteen 

Speed 21 knots 20.75 knots 


The Florida has Parsons turbines work¬ 
ing on four shafts and generates 28,000 
horse-power. 

The United States Navy has planned to 
lay down next year (1911) two ships of 
32,000 tons armed with 14-inch guns, each 
to cost eighteen million dollars as compared 
with the $11,000,000 ships of 1910. 

The following are to be some of the fea¬ 
tures of the projected ships, which are to 
be named the Arkansas and Wyoming. 

554 ft. long, 93 ft. 3 in. beam, 28 ft. 6 in. 
draft, 26,000 tons displacement, 28,000 
horse-power, 30 J knots speed, 1,650 to 2,500 
tons coal supply, armament of twelve 12- 
inch guns, twenty-one 5-inch, four 3-pound¬ 
ers and two torpedo tubes. 








170 


WONDERFUL WARSHIPS 


Fittings in recent United States battle¬ 
ships are for 21-inch torpedoes. The armor 
is to be 11 inch on belt and barbettes and 
on sides 8 inches, and each ship is to carry 
a complement of 1,115 officers and men. 
Two of the turrets will be set forward on 
the forecastle deck, which will have 28 feet, 
freeboard, the guns in the first turret being 
34 feet above the water and those of the 
second about 40 feet. Aft of the second 
turret will be the conning tower, and then 
will come the fore fire-control tower or lat¬ 
tice mast, with searchlight towers carried on 
it. Next will come the forward funnel, on 
each side of which will be two small open 
rod towers with strong searchlights. 
Then will come the main fire-control 
tower and the after funnel and another 
open tower with searchlight. The two 
lattice steel towers are to be 120 feet 
high and 40 feet apart. The four 
remaining turrets will be abaft the main 
funnel, the third turret having its guns 32 
feet above water; those in the other turrets 
about 25 feet above the water. The guns 
will be the new 50-calibre type All twelve 
will have broadside fire over a wide arc and 
four can be fired right ahead and four right 
astern. 


CHAPTER XIII 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 

The First Projectiles—Introduction of Can¬ 
non — High Pressure Guns—Machine- 
Guns—Dimensions and Cost of Big Guns. 

The first arms and machines employing 
gunpowder as ’the propelling agency, came 
into use in the fourteenth century. Prior 
to this time there were machines and instru¬ 
ments which threw stones and catapults 
and large arrows by means of the reaction 
of a tightly twisted rope made up of hemp, 
catgut or hair. Slings were also much em¬ 
ployed for hurling missiles. 

The first cannons were used by the English 
against the Scots in 1327. They were short 
and thick and wide in the bore and resem¬ 
bled bowls or mortars; in fact this name 
is still applied to this kind of ordnance. 
By the end of the fifteenth century a great 
advancement was shown in the make of 
these implements of warfare. Bronze and 
brass as materials came into general use 
and cannon were turned out with twenty to 

171 





172 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 


twenty-five inch bore weighing twenty tons 
and capable of hurling to a considerable 
distance projectiles weighing from two hun¬ 
dred pounds to one thousand pounds with 
powder as the propelling force. In a short 
time these large guns were mounted and 
carriages were introduced to facilitate 
transportation with troops. Meantime 
stone projectiles were replaced by cast iron 
shot, which, owing to its greater density, 
necessitated a reduction in calibre, that is 
a narrowing of the bore, consequently 
lighter and smaller guns came into the field, 
but with a greater propelling force. When 
the cast iron balls first came into use as 
projectiles, they weighed about twelve 
pounds, hence the cannons shooting them 
were known as twelve-pounders. It was 
soon found, however, that twelve pounds 
was too great a weight for long distances, 
so a reduction took place until the missiles 
were cut down to four pounds and the can¬ 
non discharging these, four pounders as 
they were called, weighed about one-quarter 
of a ton. They were very effective and 
handy for light field work. 

The eighteenth century witnessed rapid 
progress in gun and ammunition manufac¬ 
ture. “ Grape ” and “ canister ” were in¬ 
troduced and the names still cling to the 
present day. Grape consisted of a number 
of tarred lea.d balls, held together in a net. 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 


173 


Canister consisted of a number of small 
shot in a tin can, the shots being dispersed 
by the breaking of the can on discharge. 
Grape now consists of cast iron balls ar¬ 
ranged in three tiers by means of circular 
plates, the whole secured by a pin which 
passes through the centre. The number of 
shot in each tier varies from three to five. 
Grape is very destructive up to three hun¬ 
dred yards and effective up to six hundred 
yards. Canister shot as we know it at 
present, is made up of a number of iron 
balls, placed in a tin cylinder with a wooden 
bottom, the size of the piece of ordnance 
for which it is intended. 

Towards the close of the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury, short cast-iron guns called “ carron- 
ades” were introduced by Gascoigne of the 
Cannon Iron Works, Scotland. They threw 
heavy shots at low velocity with great bat¬ 
tery effect. They were for a long time in 
use in the British navy. The sailors called 
them “ smashers.” 

The entire battery of the Victory, Nel¬ 
son’s famous flag-ship at the battle of Tra¬ 
falgar, amounting to a total of 102 guns, 
was composed of “ carronades ” varying 
in size from thirty-two to sixty-eight 
pounders. They were mounted on wooden 
truck carriages and were given elevation 
by handspikes applied under the breech, a 
quoin or a wedge shaped piece of wood 




174 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 


being pushed in to hold the breech up in 
position. They were trained by handspikes 
with the aid of side-tackle and their recoil 
was limited by a stout rope, called the 
foreeching, the ends of which were secured 
to the sides of the ship. The slow match 
was used for firing, the flint lock not being 
applied to naval guns until 1780. 

About the middle of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury, the design of guns began to receive 
much scientific thought and consideration. 
The question of high velocities and flat 
trajectories without lightening the weight 
of the projectile was the desideratum; the 
minimum of weight in the cannon itself 
with the maximum in the projectile and the 
force with which it could be propelled were 
the ends to be attained. 

In 1856 Admiral Dahlgren of the United 
States Navy designed the Dahlgren gun 
with shape proportioned to the “ curve of 
pressure,’’ which is to say that the gun 
was heavy at the breech and light at the 
muzzle. This gun was well adapted to naval 
use at the time. From this, onward, guns 
of high pressure were manufactured until 
the pressure grew to such proportions that 
it exceeded the resisting power, represented 
by the tensile strength of cast iron. When 
cast, the gun cooled from the outside in¬ 
wardly, thus placing the inside metal in 
a state of tension and the outside in a state 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 175 

of compression. General Rodman, Chief 
of Ordnance of the United States Army, 
came forward with a remedy for this. He 
suggested the casting of guns hollow and 
the cooling of them from the inside out¬ 
wardly by circulating a stream' of cold 
water in the bore while the outside surface 
was kept at a high temperature. This 
method placed the metal inside in a state 
of compression and that on the outside in 
a state of tension, the right condition to 
withstand successfully the pressure of the 
powder gas, which tended to expand the 
inner portions beyond the normal diameter 
and throw the strain of the supporting 
outer layers. 

This system was universally employed 
and gave the best results obtainable from 
cast iron for many years and was only 
superseded by that of “ built up ” guns, 
when iron and steel were made available 
by improved processes of production. 

The great strides made in the manufac¬ 
ture and forging of steel during the past 
quarter of a century, the improved temper¬ 
ing and annealing processes have resulted 
in the turning out of big guns solely com¬ 
posed of steel. 

The various forms of modern ordnance 
are classified and named according to size 
and weight, kind of projectiles used and 
their velocities; angle of elevation at which 



176 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 


they are fired; use; and mode of opera¬ 
tion. 

The guns known as breechloading rifles 
are from three inches to fourteen inches in 
c’alibre, that is, across the bore, and in 
length from twelve to over sixty feet. They 
weigh from one ton to fifty tons. 

They fire solid shot or shells weighing 
up to eleven hundred pounds at high veloc¬ 
ities, from twenty-three to twenty-five 
hundred feet per second. They can pene¬ 
trate steel armor to a depth of fifteen to 
twenty inches at 2,000 yards distance. 

Rapid fire guns are those in which the 
operation of opening and closing the breech 
is performed by a single motion of a lever 
actuated by the hand, and in which the ex¬ 
plosive used is closed in a metallic case. 
These guns are made in various forms and 
are operated by several different systems 
of breech mechanism generally named after 
their respective inventors. The Vickers- 
Maxim and the Nordenfeldt are the best 
known in America. A new type of the 
Viokers-Maxim was introduced in 1897 
in which a quick working breech mech¬ 
anism automatically ejects the primer and 
draws up the loading tray into position 
as the breech is opened. This type was 
quickly adopted by the United States Navy 
and materially increased the speed of fire 
in all calibres. 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS ITT 

What are known as machine guns are 
rapid fire guns in which the speed of firing 
is such that it is practically continuous. 
The best known make is the famous Gat¬ 
ling gun invented by Dr. R. J. Gatling of 
Indianapolis in i860. This gun consists 
of ten parallel barrels grouped around and 
secured firmly to a main central shaft to 
which is also attached the grooved cartridge 
carrier and the lock cylinder. Each barrel 
is provided with its own lock or firing 
mechanism, independent of the other, but 
all of them revolve simultaneously with the 
barrels, carrier and inner breech when the 
gun is in operation. In firing, one end of 
the feed case containing the cartridges is 
placed in the hopper on top and the opera¬ 
ting crank is turned. The cartridges drop 
one by one into the grooves of the carrier 
and are loaded and fired by the forward 
motion of the locks, which also closes the 
breech while the backward motion extracts 
and expels the empty shells. In its present 
state of efficiency the Gatling gun fires at 
the rate of 1,200 shots per minute, a speed, 
by separate discharges, not equaled by any 
other gun. 

Much larger guns were constructed in 
times past than are being built now. In 
1880 the English made guns weighing from 
100 to 120 tons, from 18 to 20 inches bore 
and which fired projectiles weighing over 




178 


A TALK ON BIO GUNS 


2,000 pounds at a velocity of almost 1,700 
feet per second. At the same time the 
United States fashioned a monster rifle of 
127 tons which had a bore of sixteen inches 
and fired a projectile of 2,400 pounds with 
a velocity of 2,300 feet per second. 

The largest guns ever placed on board 
ship were the Armstrong one-hundred-and- 
ten-ton guns of the English battleships, 
Sans par e-il, Benbow and Victoria. They 
were sixteen and one-fourth inch calibre. 
The newest battleships of England, the 
Dreadnought and the Tenierairc, are equip¬ 
ped with fourteen-inch guns, but they are 
not one-half so heavy as the old guns. 
Many experts in naval ordnance think it a 
mistake to have guns over twelve inch bore, 
basing their belief on the experience of 
the past which showed that guns of a less 
calibre carrying smaller shells did more 
effective work than the big bore guns with 
larger projectiles. 

The two titanic war-vessels now in course 
of construction for the United States Navy 
will each carry a battery of ten fourteen- 
inch rifles, which will be the most powerful 
weapons ever constructed and will greatly 
exceed in range and hitting power the 
twelve-inch guns of the Delaware or North 
Dakota. Each of the new rifles will weigh 
over sixty-three tons, the projectiles will 
each weigh 1,400 pounds and the powder 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 


179 


charge will be 450 pounds. At the moment 
of discharge each of these guns will exert 
a muzzle energy of 65,600 foot tons, which 
simply means that the energy will be so 
great that it could raise 65,600 tons a foot 
from the ground. The fourteen-hundred- 
pound projectiles shall be propelled through 
the air at the rate of half a mile a second. 
It will be plainly seen that the metal of the 
guns must be of enormous resistance to 
withstand such a force. The designers have 
taken this into full consideration and will 
see to it that the powder chamber in which 
the explosion takes place as well as the 
breech lock on which the shock is exerted 
is of steel so wrought and tempered as to 
withstand the terrific strain. At the mo¬ 
ment of detonation the shock will be about 
equal to that of a heavy engine and a train 
of Pullman coaches running at seventy 
miles an hour, smashing into a stone wall. 
On leaving the muzzle of the gun the shell 
will have an energy equivalent to that of a 
train of cars weighing 580 tons and run¬ 
ning at sixty miles an hour. Such energy 
will be sufficient to send the projectile 
through twenty-two and a half inches of 
the hardest of steel armour at the muzzle, 
while at a range of 3,000 yards, the pro¬ 
jectile moving at the rate of 2,235 feet per 
second will pierce eighteen and a half 
inches of steel armor at normal impact. 


180 


A TALK ON BIG GUNS 


The velocity of the projectile leaving the 
gun will be 2,600 feet per second, a speed 
which if maintained would carry it around 
the world in less than fifteen hours. 

Each of the mammoth guns will be a 
trifle over fifty-three feet in length and the 
estimated cost of each will be $85,000. 
Judging from the performance of the 
twelve-inch guns it is figured that these 
greater weapons should be able to deliver 
three shots a minute. If all ten guns of 
either of the projected Dreadnoughts should 
be brought into action at one time and 
maintain the three shot rapidity for one 
hour, the cost of the ammunition expended 
in that hour would reach the enormous sum 
of $2,520,000. 

Very few, however, of the big guns are 
called upon for the three shots a minute 
rate, for the metal would not stand the 
heating strain. 

The big guns are expensive and even 
when only moderately used their “ life ” 
is short, therefore, care is taken not to put 
them to too great a strain. With the 
smaller guns it is different. Some of six- 
inch bore fire as high as eight aimed shots 
a minute, but this is only under ideal con¬ 
ditions. 

Great care is being taken now to prolong 
the “life” of the big guns by using non- 
corrosive material for the charges. The 












A TALK ON BIG GUNS 


131 


United States has adopted a pure gun¬ 
cotton smokeless powder in which the tem¬ 
perature of combustion is not only lower 
than that of nitro-glycerine, but even lower 
than that of ordinary gunpowder. With 
the use of this there has been a very ma¬ 
terial decrease in the corrosion of the big 
guns. The former smokeless powder, con¬ 
taining a large percentage of nitro-glycerine 
such as “ cordite,” produced such an effect 
that the guns were used up and practically 
worthless, after firing fifty to sixty rounds. 

Now it is possible for a gun to be as 
good after two or even three hundred 
rounds as at the beginning, but certainly 
not if a three minute rate is maintained. 
At such a rate the “ life ” of the best gun 
made would be short indeed. 





CHAPTER XV 


MYSTERY OF THE STARS 

Wonders of the Universe—Star Photog¬ 
raphy—The Infinity of Space. 

In another chapter we have lightly 
touched upon the greatness of the Universe, 
in the cosmos of which our earth is but an 
infinitesimal speck. Even our sun, round 
which a system of worlds revolve and 
which appears so mighty and majestic to 
us, is but an atom, a very small one, in the 
infinitude of matter and as a cog, would not 
be missed in the ratchet wheel which fits 
into the grand machinery of Nature. 

If our entire solar system were wiped out 
of being, there would be left no noticeable 
void among the countless systems of worlds 
and suns and stars; in the immensity of 
space the sun with all his revolving planets 
is not even as a drop to the ocean or a grain 
of sand to the composition of the earth. 
There are millions of other suns of larger 
dimensions with larger attendants wheeling 

182 


MYSTERY OF THE STARS 183 

around them in the illimitable fields of 
space. Those stars which we erroneously 
call “fixed” stars are the centers of other 
systems vastly greater, vastly grander than 
the one of which our earth forms so insig¬ 
nificant a part. Of course to us numbers of 
them appear, even when viewed through 
the most powerful telescopes, only as mere 
luminous points, but that is owing to the 
immensity of distance between them and 
ourselves. But the number that is visible 
to us even with instrumental assistance can 
have no comparison with the number that 
we cannot see; there is no limit to that num¬ 
ber ; away in what to us may be called the 
background of space are millions, billions, 
uncountable myriads of invisible suns regu¬ 
lating and illuminating countless systems 
of invisible worlds. And beyond those 
invisible suns and worlds is a region which 
thought cannot measure and numbers can¬ 
not span. The finite mind of man becomes 
dazed, dumbfounded in contemplation of 
magnitude so great and distance so amaz¬ 
ing. We stand not bewildered but lost 
before the problem of interstellar space. 
Its length, breadth, height and circum¬ 
ference are illimitable, boundless; the great 
eternal cosmos without beginning and with¬ 
out end. 

In order to get some idea of the vastness 
of interstellar space we may consider a 


184 MYSTERY OF THE STARS 

few distances within the limits of human 
conception. We know that light travels at 
the rate of 186,000 miles a second, yet it 
requires light over four years to reach us 
from the nearest of the fixed stars, travel¬ 
ling at this almost inconceivable rate, and so 
far away are some that their light travelling 
at the same rate from the dawn of creation 
has never reached us yet or never will until 
our little globule of matter disintegrates 
and its particles, its molecules and corpus¬ 
cles, float away in the boundless ether to 
amalgamate with the matter of other flying 
worlds and suns and stars. 

The nearest to us of all the stars is that 
known as Alpha Centauri. Its distance is 
computed at 25,000,000,000,000 miles,which 
in our notation reads twenty-five trillion 
miles. It takes light over four years to 
traverse this distance. It would take the 
“ Empire State Express/’ never stopping 
night or day and going at the rate of a 
mile a minute, almost 50,000,000 years to 
to travel from the earth to this star. 
The next of the fixed stars and the 
brightest in all the heavens is that 
which we call Sirius or the Dog Star. It is 
double the distance of Alpha Centauri, that 
is, it is eight “ light years ” away. The 
distances of about seventy other stars have 
been ascertained ranging up to seventy or 
eighty “ light years ” away, but of the oth- 


MYSTERY OF THE STARS 185 

ers visible to the naked eye they are too 
far distant to come within the range of trig¬ 
onometrical calculation. They are out of 
reach of the mathematical eye in the depth 
of space. But we know for certain that 
the distance of none of these visible stars, 
without a measurable parallax, is less than 
four million times the distance of our sun 
from the earth. It would be useless to 
express this in figures as it would be alto¬ 
gether incomprehensible. What then can 
be said of the telescopic stars, not to speak 
at all of those beyond the power of instru¬ 
ments to determine. 

If a railroad could be constructed to the 
nearest star and the fare made one cent a 
mile, a single passage would cost $250,000,- 
coo,ooo, that is tw r o hundred and fifty bil¬ 
lion dollars, which would make a 94-foot 
cube of pure gold. All of the coined gold 
in the world amounts to but $4,000,000,000 
(four billion dollars), equal to a gold cube 
of 24 feet. Therefore it would take sixty 
times the world’s stock of gold to pay the 
fare of one passenger, at a cent a mile 
from the earth to Alpha Centauri. 

The light from numbers, probably count¬ 
less numbers, of stars is so long in coming 
to us that they could be blotted out of exis¬ 
tence and we would remain unconscious of 
the fact for years, for hundreds of years, 
for thousands of years, nay to infinity. 


136 MYSTERY OF THE STARS 

Thus if Sirius were to collide with some 
other space traveler and be knocked into 
smithereens as an Irishman would say, we 
would not know about it for eight years. 
In fact if all the stars were blotted out and 
only the sun left we should still behold their 
light in the heavens and be unconscious of 
the extinction of even some of the naked- 
eye stars for sixty or seventy years. 

It is vain to pursue farther the unthink¬ 
able vastness of the visible Universe; as 
for the invisible it is equally useless for 
even imagination to try to grapple with its 
never-ending immensity, to endeavor to 
penetrate its awful clouded mystery forever 
veiled from human view. 

In all there are about 3,000 stars visible 
to the naked eye in each hemisphere. A 
three-inch pocket telescope brings about one 
million into view. The grand and scien¬ 
tifically perfected instruments of our great 
observatories show incalculable multitudes. 
Every improvement in light-grasping power 
brings millions of new stars into the range 
of instrumental vision and shows the “ back¬ 
ground ” of the sky blazing with the light 
of eye-invisible suns too far away to be 
separately distinguished. 

Great strides are daily being made in 
stellar photography. Plates are now being 
attached to the telescopic apparatus where¬ 
by luminous heavenly bodies are able to 


MYSTERY OF THE STARS 187 

impress their own pictures. Groups of 
stars are being photographed on one plate. 
Complete sets of these star photographs are 
being taken every year, embracing every 
nook and corner of the celestial sphere and 
these are carefully compared with one 
another to find out what changes are going 
on in the heavens. It will not be long 
before every star photographically visible 
to the most powerful telescope will have its 
present position accurately defined on these 
photographic charts. 

When the sensitized plate is exposed for 
a considerable time even invisible stars pho¬ 
tograph themselves, and in this way a great 
number of stars have been discovered which 
no telescope, however powerful, can bring 
within the range of vision. Tens of thou¬ 
sands of stars have registered themselves 
thus on a single plate, and on one occasion 
an impression was obtained on one plate 
of more than 400,000. 

Astronomers are of the opinion that for 
every star visible to the naked eye there are 
more than 50,000 visible to the camera of 
the telescope. If this is so, then the number 
of visible stars exceeds 300,000,000 (three 
hundred millions). 

But the picture taking poweh of the finest 
photographic lens has a limit; no matter 
how long the exposure, it cannot penetrate 
beyond a certain boundary into the vastness 




188 MYSTERY OF THE STARS 

of space, and beyond its limits as George 
Sterling, the Californian poet, says are— 

“ fires of unrecorded suns 

That light a heaven not our own.” 

What is the limit? Answer philosopher, 
answer sage, answer astronomer, and we 
have the solution of “ the riddle of the Uni¬ 
verse.” 

As yet the riddle still remains, the veil 
still hangs between the knowable and the 
unknowable, between the finite and the infi¬ 
nite. Science stands baffled like a wailing 
creature outside the walls of knowledge 
importuning for admission. There is little, 
in truth no hope at all, that she will ever be 
allowed to enter, survey all the fields of 
space and set a limit to their boundaries. 

Although the riddle of the universe still 
remains unsolved because unsolvable, no 
one can deny that Astronomy has made 
mighty strides forward during the past 
few years. What has been termed the 
“ Old Astronomy,” which concerns itself 
with the determination of the positions and 
motions of the heavenly bodies, has been 
rejuvenated and an immense amount of 
work has been accomplished by concerted 
effort, as well as by individual exertions. 

The greatest achievements have been the 
accurate determination of the positions of 


MYSTERY OF TIIE STARS 18!) 

the fixed stars visible to the eye. Their 
situation is now estimated with as unerring 
precision as is that of the planets of our 
own system. Millions upon millions of 
stars have been photographed and these 
photographs will be invaluable in determin¬ 
ing the future changes and motions of these 
giant suns of interstellar space. 

Of our own system we now know defi¬ 
nitely the laws governing it. Fifty years 
ago much of our solar machinery was mis¬ 
understood and many things were envel¬ 
oped in mystery which since has been 
made very plain. The spectroscope has had 
a wonderful part in astronomical research. 
It first revealed the nature of the gases 
existing in the sun. It next enabled us 
to study the prominences on any clear day. 
Then by using it in the spectro-heliograph 
we have been enabled to photograph the 
entire visible surface of the sun, together 
with the prominences at one time. Through 
the spectro-heliograph we know much more 
about what the central body of our system 
is doing than our theories can explain. 
Fresh observations are continually bringing 
to light new facts which must soon be 
accounted for by laws at present unknown. 

Spectroscopic observations are by no 
means confined to the sun. By them we 
now study the composition of the atmos¬ 
pheres of the other planets; through them 



190 MYSTERY OF THE STARS 

the presence of chemical elements known 
on the earth is detected in vagrant comets, 
far-distant stars and dimly-shining nebulae. 
The spectroscope also makes it possible to 
measure the velocities of objects which are 
approaching or receding from us. For 
instance we know positively that the 
bright star called Aldebaran near the con¬ 
stellation of the Pleiades is retreating from 
us at a rate of almost two thousand miles 
a minute. The greatest telescopes in the 
world are now being trained on stars that 
are rushing away towards the “ further¬ 
most ” of space and in this way astrono¬ 
mers are trying to get definite knowledge as 
to the actual velocity with which the celes¬ 
tial bodies are speeding. 

It is only within the past few years that 
photography has been applied to astronom¬ 
ical development. In this connection, more 
accurate results are obtained by measuring 
the photographs of stellar spectra than by 
measuring the spectra themselves. Photog¬ 
raphy with modern rapid plates gives us, 
with a given telescope, pictures of objects so 
faint that no visual telescope of the same 
size will reveal them. It is in this way that 
many of the invisible stars have impressed 
themselves upon exposed plates and given 
us a vague idea of the immensity in number 
of those stars which we cannot view with 
-eye or instrument. 


MYSTERY OF THE STARS 


191 


Though we have made great advance¬ 
ment, there are many problems yet even in 
regard to our own little system of sun 
worlds which clamor loudly for solution. 
The sun himself represents a crowd of pend¬ 
ing problems. His peculiar mode of rota¬ 
tion ; the level of sunspots; the constitution 
of the photospheric cloud-shell, its relation 
to faculae which rise from it, and to 
the surmounting vaporous strata; the na¬ 
ture of the prominences; the alternations 
of coronal types; the affinities of the zodi¬ 
acal light—all await investigation. 

A great telescope has recently shown 
that one star in eighteen on the average is 
a visual double—is composed of two suns 
in slow revolution around their common 
center of mass. The spectroscope using 
the photographic plate, has established 
within the last decade that one star in every 
five or six on the average is attended by a 
companion so near to it as to remain invis¬ 
ible in the most powerful telescopes, and so 
massive as to swing the visible star around 
in an elliptic orbit. 

The photography of comets, nebulae and 
solar coronas has made the study of these 
phenomena incomparably more effective 
than the old visual methods. There is 
no longer any necessity to make “ draw¬ 
ings ” of them. The old dread of comets 
has been relegated into the shade of ignor- 




102 MYSTERY OF THE STARS 

ance. The long switching tails regarded 
so ominously and from which were antici¬ 
pated such dire calamities as the destruc¬ 
tion of worlds into chaos have been proven 
to be composed of gaseous vapors of no 
more solidity than the “ airy nothingness of 
dreams.” 

The earth in the circle of its orbit passed 
through the tail of Halley’s comet in May, 
1910, and we hadn’t even a pyrotechnical 
display of fire rockets to celebrate the occa¬ 
sion. In fact there was not a single celestial 
indication of the passage and we would not 
have known only for the calculations of the 
astronomer. The passing of a comet now, 
as far as fear is concerned, means no more, 
in fact not as much, as the passing of an 
automobile. 

Science no doubt has made wonderful 
strides in our time, but far as it has gone, 
it has but opened for us the first few pages 
of the book of the heavens—the last pages 
of which no man shall ever read. For 
aeons upon aeons of time, worlds and suns, 
and systems of worlds and suns, revolved 
through the infinity of space, before man 
made his appearance on the tiny molecule 
of matter we call the earth, and for aeons 
upon aeons, for eternity upon eternity, 
worlds and suns shall continue to roll and 
revolve after the last vestige of man shall 
have disappeared, nay after the atoms of 


MYSTERY OF THE STARS 19S 

earth and sun and all his attending- planets 
of our system shall have amalgamated them¬ 
selves with other systems in the boundless¬ 
ness of space; destroyed, obliterated, anni¬ 
hilated, they shall never be, for matter 
is indestructible. When it passes from 
one form it enters another; the dead 
animal that is cast into the earth 
lives again in the trees and shrubs 
and flowers and grasses that grow in. 
the earth above where its body was 
'cast. Our earth shall die in course of 
time, that is, its particles will pass into 
other compositions and it will be so of the 
other planets, of the suns, of the stars 
themselves, for as soon as the old ones die 
there will ever be new forms to which to 
attach themselves and thus the process of 
world development shall go on forever. 

The nebulae which astronomers discover 
throughout the stellar space are extended 
masses of glowing gases of different forms 
and are worlds in process of formation. 
Such was the earth once. These gases 
solidify and contract and cool off until 
finally an inhabited world, inhabited by 
some kind of creatures, takes its place in 
the whirling galaxy of systems. 

The stars which appear to us in a yel¬ 
low or whitish yellow light are in the 
heyday of their existence, while those that 
present a red haze are almost burnt out and. 


194 


MYSTERY OF THE STARS 


will soon become blackened, dead things 
disintegrating and crumbling and spread¬ 
ing their particles throughout space. It is 
supposed this little earth of ours has a few 
more million years to live, so we need not 
fear for our personal safety while in mortal 
form. 

To us ordinary mortals the mystery as 
well as the majesty of the heavens have the 
same wonderful attraction as they had for 
the first of our race. Thousands of years 
ago the black-bearded shepherds of Eastern 
lands gazed nightly into the vaulted dome 
and were struck with awe as well as won¬ 
der in the contemplation of the glittering 
specks which appeared no larger than the 
pebbles beneath their feet. 

We in our time as we gaze with unaided 
eye up at the mighty disk of the so called 
Milky Way, no longer regard the scintillat¬ 
ing points glittering like diamonds in a 
jeweler’s show-case, with feelings of awe, 
but the wonder is still upon us, wonder at 
the immensity of the works of Him who 
built the earth and sky, who, “ throned in 
height sublime, sits amid the cherubim,” 
King of the Universe, King of kings and 
Lord of lords. With a deep faith we look 
up and adore, then reverently exclaim,— 
“ Lord, God! wonderful are the works of 
Thy Hands.” 


CHAPTER XVI 


CAN WE COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER 

WORLDS ? 

Vastness of Nature—Star Distances—Prob¬ 
lem of Communicating with Mars—The 
Great Beyond. 

A story is told of a young lady who had 
just graduated from boarding school with 
high honors. Coming home in great glee, 
she cast her books aside as she announced 
to her friends;—“ Thank goodness it is all 
over, I have nothing more to learn. I know 
Latin and Greek, French and German, 
Spanish and Italian; I have gone through 
Algebra, Geometry. Trigonometry, Conic 
Sections and the Calculus; I can interpret 
Beethoven and Wagner, and—but why 
enumerate?—in short, ‘I knozu every¬ 
thing. ’" 

As she was thus proclaiming her knowl¬ 
edge her hoary-headed grandfather, a man 
whom the Universities of the world had 
honored by affixing a score of alphabetical 
letters to his name, was experimenting in 

195 





ICG 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 


his laboratory. The lines of long and deep 
study had corrugated his brow and fur¬ 
rowed his face. Wearily he bent over his 
retorts and test tubes. At length he turned 
away with a heavy sigh, threw up his hands 
and despairingly exclaimed ,—“ Alas, alas ! 
after fifty years of study and investigation, 
I find I know nothing 

There is a moral in this story that he who 
runs may read. Most of us are like the 
young lady,—in the pride of our ignorance, 
we fancy we know almost everything. We 
boast of the progress of our time, of what 
has been accomplished in our modern 
world, we proclaim our triumphs from the 
hilltops,—“ Ha! ” we shout, “ we have an¬ 
nihilated time and distance; we have con¬ 
quered the forces of nature and made them 
subservient to our will; we have chained 
the lightning and imprisoned the thunder; 
we have wandered through the fields of 
space and measured the dimensions and 
revolutions of stars and suns and planets 
and systems. We have opened the eternal 
gates of knowledge for all to enter and 
crowned man king of the universe.” 

Vain boasting! The gates of knowledge 
have been opened, but we have merely got 
a peep at what lies within. And man, so 
far from being, king of the universe, is but 
as a speck on the fly-wheel that controls 
the mighty machinery of creation. 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 197 

What we know is infinitesimal to what 
we do not know >We have delved in the 
fields of science, but as yet our plough¬ 
shares have merely scratched the tiniest por¬ 
tion of the surface,—the furrow that lies 
in the distance is unending. In the infinite 
book of knowledge we have just turned over 
a few of the first pages; but as it is infinite, 
alas! we can never hope to reach the final 
page, for there is no final page. What we 
have accomplished is but as a mere drop in 
the ocean, whose waves wash the continents 
of eternity. No scholar, no scientist can 
bound those continents, can tell the limits 
to which they stretch, inasmuch as they are 
illimitable. 

Ask the most learned savant if he can fix 
the boundaries of space, and he will an¬ 
swer,—No! Ask him if he can define mind 
and matter, and you will receive the same 
answer. 

“ What is mind ? It is no matter.” 

** What is matter? Never mind.” 

The atom formerly thought to be indi¬ 
visible and the smallest particle of matter 
has been reduced to molecules, corpuscles, 
ions, and electrons; but the nature, the pri¬ 
mal cause of these, the greatest scientists 
on earth are unable to determine. Learn¬ 
ing is as helpless as ignorance when 
brought up against this stone-wall of mys¬ 
tery. The effect is seen, but the cause re- 







193 WITH OTHER WORLDS 

mains indeterminable. The scientist, gray¬ 
haired in experience and experiment, 
knows no more in this regard than the 
prattling child at its mother’s knee. The 
child asks,—“ Who made the world ? ” and 
the mother answers, “ God made the world.” 
The infant mind, suggestive of the future 
craving for knowledge, immediately asks,— 
“Who is God?” Question of questions to 
which the philosopher and the peasant must 
give the same answer,—“ God is the infin¬ 
ite, the eternal, the source of all things, the 
alpha and omega of creation, from Him 
all came, to Him all must return.” He is 
the beginning of Science, the foundation on 
which our edifice of knowledge rests. 

We hear of the conflict between Science 
and Religion. There is no conflict, can be 
none, for all Science must be based on faith, 
—faith in Him who holds worlds and suns 
“ in the hollow of His hand.” All our 
great scientists have been deeply religious 
men, acknowledging their own insignifi¬ 
cance before Him who fills the universe 
with His presence. 

What is the universe and what place do 
we hold in it? The mind of man becomes 
appalled in consideration of the question. 
The orb we know as the sun is centre of a 
system of worlds of which our earth is al¬ 
most the most insignificant; yet great as is 
the sun when compared to the little bit of 


WITH OTHER WORLDSt 


199 






matter on which we dwell and have our be¬ 
ing, it is itself but a mote, as it were, in 
the beam of the Universe. Formerly this 
sun was thought to be fixed and immova¬ 
ble, but the progress of science demon¬ 
strated that while the earth moves around 
this luminary, the latter is moving with 
mighty velocity in an orbit of its own. ’Tis 
the same with all the other bodies which we 
erroneously call “ fixed stars.” These stars 
are the suns of other systems of worlds, 
countless systems, all rushing through the 
immensity of space, for there is nothing 
fixed or stationary in creation,—all is move¬ 
ment, constant, unvarying. Suns and stars 
and systems perform their revolutions with 
unerring precision, each unit-world true to 
its own course, thus proving to the soul of 
reason and the consciousness of faith that 
there must needs be an omnipotent hand at 
the lever of this grand machinery of the 
universe, the hand that fashioned it, that 
of God. Addison beautifully expresses the 
idea in referring to the revolutions of the 
stars: 


“ In reason’s ear they all rejoice, 

And utter forth one glorious voice, 
Forever singing as they shine— 

1 The Hand that made us is Divine.’ ” 


Our sun, the centre of the small system 
of worlds of which the earth is one, is dis- 







-200 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 


tant from us about ninety-three million 
miles. In winter it is nearer; in summer 
farther off. Light travels this distance in 
.about eight minutes, to be exact, the rate 
is 186,400 miles per second. To get an 
idea of the immensity of the distance of the 
so-called fixed stars, let us take this as a 
base of comparison. The nearest fixed star 
to us is Alpha Centauri, which is one of 
the brightest as seen in the southern heav¬ 
ens. It requires four and one-quarter years 
for a beam of light to travel from this star 
to earth at the rate of 186,000 miles a sec¬ 
ond, thus showing that Alpha Centauri is 
about two hundred and seventy-five thou¬ 
sand times as far from us as is the sun, in 
other words, more than 25,575,000,000,000 
miles, which, expressed in our notation, 
reads twenty-five trillion, five hundred and 
seventy-five billion miles, a number which 
the mind of man is incapable of grasping. 
To use the old familiar illustration of the 
express train, it would take the “ Twentieth 
Century Limited,” which does the thousand 
mile trip between New York and Chicago 
in less than twenty-four hours, some one 
million two hundred and fifty thousand 
years at the same speed to travel from the 
earth to Alpha Centauri. Sirius, the Dog- 
Star, is twice as far away, something like 
eight or nine “ light ” years from our solar 
system; the Pole-Star is forty-eight “ light ” 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 201 

years removed from us, and so on with the 
rest, to an infinity of numbers. From the 
dawn of creation in the eternal cosmos of 
matter, light has been travelling from some 
stars in the infinitude of space at the rate of 
186,000 miles per second, but so remote are 
they from our system that it has not reached 
us as yet. The contemplation is bewilder¬ 
ing; the mind sinks into nothingness in 
consideration of a magnitude so great and 
distance so confusing. What lies beyond?— 
a region which numbers cannot measure 
and thought cannot span, and beyond that? 
—the eternal answer,—GOD. 

In face of the contemplation of the vast¬ 
ness of creation, of its boundlessness the 
question ever obtrudes itself,—What place 
have we mortals in the universal cosmos? 
What place have we finite creatures, who 
inhabit this speck of matter we call the 
earth, in this mighty scheme of suns and 
systems and never-ending space. Does the 
Creator of all think us the most important 
of his works, that we should be the par¬ 
ticular objects of revelation, that for us 
especially heaven was built, and a God- 
man, the Son of the Eternal, came down to 
take flesh of our flesh and live among us, 
to show us the way, and finally to offer him¬ 
self as a victim to the Father to expiate 
our transgressions. Mystery of mysteries 
before which we stand appalled and lost in 




£02 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 


wonder. Self-styled rationalists love to 
point out the irrationality and absurdity of 
supposing that the Creator of all the unim¬ 
aginable vastness of suns and systems, fill¬ 
ing for all we know endless space, should 
take any special interest in so mean and 
pitiful a creature as man, inhabiting such 
an infinitesimal speck of matter as the 
earth, which depends for its very life and 
light upon a second or third-rate or hun¬ 
dred-rate Sun. 

From the earliest times of our era, the 
sneers and taunts of atheism and agnostic¬ 
ism have been directed at the humble be¬ 
liever, who bows down in submission and 
questions not. The fathers of the Church, 
such as Augustine and Chrysostom and 
Thomas of Aquinas ’and, at a later time, 
Luther, and Calvin, and Knox, and New¬ 
man, despite the war of creeds, have at¬ 
tacked the citadel of the scoffers; but still 
the latter hurl their javelins from the ram¬ 
parts, battlements and parapets and refuse 
to be repulsed. If there are myriads of 
other worlds, thousands, millions of them 
in point of magnitude greater than ours, 
what concern say they has the Creator with 
our little atom of matter? Are other 
worlds inhabited besides our own. This is 
the question that will not down—that is 
always begging for an answer. The most 
learned savants of modern time, scholars, 





WITH OTHER WORLDS 203 

sages, philosophers and scientists have given 
it their attention, but as yet no one has been 
able to conclusively decide whether a race of 
intelligent beings exists in any sphere other 
than our own. All efforts to determine the 
matter result in mere surmise, conjecture 
and guesswork. The best of scientists can 
only put forward an opinion. 

Professor Simon Newcomb, one of the 
most brilliant minds our country has pro¬ 
duced, says: “ It is perfectly reasonable to 
suppose that beings, not only animated but 
endowed with reason, inhabit countless 
worlds in space.” Professor Mitchell of 
the Cincinnati Observatory, in his work, 
“ Popular Astronomy,” says.—“ It is most 
incredible to assert, as so many do, that our 
planet, so small and insignificant in its pro¬ 
portions when compared with the planets 
with which it is allied, is the onlv world in 
the whole universe filled with sentient, ra¬ 
tional, and intelligent beings capable of com¬ 
prehending the grand mysteries of the phy¬ 
sical universe. CamilleFlammarion, in refer¬ 
ring to the utter insignificance of the earth 
in the immensity of space, puts forward his 
view thus: “ If advancing with thd velocity 
of light we could traverse from century to 
century the unlimited number of suns and 
spheres without ever meeting any limit to 
the prodigious immensity where God brings 
forth his worlds, and looking behind, know- 







204 WITH OTHER WORLDS 

ing not in what part of the infinite was the 
little grain of dust .called the earth, we 
would be compelled to unite our voices with 
that universal nature and exclaim—‘ Al¬ 
mighty God, how senseless were we to be¬ 
lieve that there was nothing beyond the 
earth and that our abode alone possessed 
the privilege of reflecting Thy greatness 
and honor.’ ” 

The most distinguished astronomers and 
scientists of a past time, as well as many 
of the most famous divines, supported the 
contention of world life beyond the earth. 
Among these may be mentioned Kepler and 
Tycho, Giordano Bruno and Cardinal Cusa, 
Sir William and Sir John Herschel, Dr. 
Bentley and Dr. Chalmers, and even New¬ 
ton himself subscribed in great measure to 
the belief that the planets and stars are in¬ 
habited by intelligent beings. 

Those who deny the possibility of other 
worlds being inhabited, endeavor to show 
that our position in the universe is unique, 
that our solar system is quite different from 
all others, and, to crown the argument, they 
assert that our little world has just the 
right amount of water, air, and gravita¬ 
tional force to enable it to be the abode of 
intelligent life, whereas elsewhere, such con¬ 
ditions do not prevail, and that on no other 
sphere can such physical habitudes be found 
as will enable life to originate or to exist. 




WITH OTHER WORLDS 205 

It can be easily shown that such reasoning 
is based on untenable foundations. Other 
worlds have to go through processes of 
evolution, and there can be no doubt that 
many are in a state similar to our own. 
It required hundreds of thousands, perhaps 
hundreds of millions of years, before this 
earth was fit to sustain human life. The 
same transitions which took place on earth 
are taking place in other planets of our 
system, and other systems, and it is but 
reasonable to assume that in other sys¬ 
tems there ’are much older worlds than 
the earth, and that these have arrived at 
a more developed state of existence, 
and therefore have a life much higher 
than our own. As far as physical condi¬ 
tions are concerned, there are suns similar 
to our own, as revealed by the spectroscope, 
and which have the same eruptive energy. 
Astronomical Science has incontrovertibly 
demonstrated, and evidence is continually 
increasing to show that dark, opaque worlds 
like ours exist and revolve around their 
primaries. Why should not these worlds be 
inhabited by a race equal or even superior 
in intelligence to ourselves, according to 
their place in the cosmos of creation? 

Leaving out of the question the outlying 
worlds of space, let us come to a consider¬ 
ation of the nearest celestial neighbor we 
have in our own system, the planet Mars. 








200 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 


Is there rational life on Mars and if so can 
we communicate with the inhabitants? 

Though little more than half the earth’s 
size, Mars has a significance in the public 
eye which places it first in importance 
among the planets. It is our nearest neigh¬ 
bor on the outer side of the earth’s path 
around the Sun and, viewed through a 
telescope of good magnifying power, shows 
surface markings, suggestive of continents, 
mountains, valleys, oceans, seas and rivers, 
and all the varying phenomena which the 
mind associates with a world like unto our 
own. Indeed, it possesses so many features 
in common with the earth, that it is im¬ 
possible to resist the conception of its being 
inhabitated. This, however, is not tanta¬ 
mount to saying that if there is a race of 
beings on Mars they are the same as we 
on Earth. By no means. Whatever at¬ 
mosphere exists on Mars must be much 
thinner than ours and far too rare to sus¬ 
tain the life of a people with our limited 
lung capacity. A race with immense chests 
could live under such conditions, and folk 
with gills like fish could pass a comfortable 
existence in the rarefied air. Besides the 
tenuity of the atmosphere, there are other 
conditions which would cause life to be 
much different on Mars. Attraction and 
gravitation are altogether different. The 
force with which a substance is attracted to 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 207 

the surface of Mars is only a little more 
than one-third as strong as on the earth. 
For instance one hundred pounds on Earth 
would weigh only about thirty-eight pounds 
on Mars. A man who could jump five feet 
here could clear fifteen feet on Mars. 
Paradoxical as it may seem, the smaller a 
planet, in comparison with ours and conse¬ 
quently the less the pull of gravity at its 
centre, the greater is the probability that 
its inhabitants, if any, are giants when 
compared with us. Professor Lowell has 
pointed out that to place the Martians (if 
there are such beings) under the same 
conditions as those in which we exist, the 
average inhabitant must be considered to 
be three times as large and three times as 
heavy as the average human being; and 
the strength of the Martians must exceed 
ours to even a greater extent than the bulk 
and weight; for their muscles would be 
twenty-seven times more effective. In fact, 
one Martian could do the work of fifty 
or sixty men. 

It is idle, however, to speculate as to 
what the forms of life are like on Mars, 
for if there are any such forms our ideas 
and conceptions of them must be imaginary, 
as we cannot see them on Mars we do not 
know. There is yet no possibility of seeing 
anything on the planet less than thirty miles 
across, and even a city of that size, viewed 







208 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 


through the most powerful telescope, would 
only be visible as a minute speck. Great 
as is the perfection to which our optical in¬ 
struments have been brought, they have 
revealed nothing on the planet save the 
so-called canals, to indicate the presence of 
sentient rational beings. The canals dis¬ 
covered by Schiaparelli of the Milan Ob¬ 
servatory in 1877 are so regular, outlined 
with such remarkable geometrical precision, 
that it is claimed they must be artificial and 
the work of a high order of intelligence. 
“ The evidence of such work,” says Pro¬ 
fessor Lowell, “ points to a highly intelli¬ 
gent mind behind it.” 

Can this intelligence in any way reach 
us, or can we express ourselves to it? Can 
the chasm of space which lies between the 
Earth and Mars be bridged—a chasm 
which, at the shortest, is more than thirty- 
five million miles across or one hundred 
and fifty times greater than the distance 
between the earth and the moon? Can the 
inhabitants of the Earth and Mars ex¬ 
change signals? To answer the question, 
let us institute some comparisons. Sup¬ 
pose the fabled “ Man in the Moon ” were 
a real personage, we would require a tele¬ 
scope 800 times more powerful than the 
finest instrument we now have to see him, 
for the space penetrating power of the' best 
telescope is not more than 300 miles and 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 209 

the moon is 240,000 miles distant. An ob¬ 
ject to be visible on the moon would re¬ 
quire to be as large as the Metropolitan 
Insurance Building in New York, which is 
over 700 feet high. To see, therefore, an 
object on Mars by means of the telescope 
the object would need to have dimensions 
one hundred and fifty times as great as the 
object on the moon; in other words, before 
we could see a building on Mars, it would 
have to be one hundred and fifty times the 
size of the Metropolitan Building. Even 
if there are inhabitants there, it is not 
likely they have such large buildings. 

Assuming that there are Martians, and 
that they are desirous of communicating 
with the earth by waving a flag, such a flag 
in order to be seen through the most pow¬ 
erful telescopes and when Mars is nearest, 
would have to be 300 miles long and 200 
miles wide and be flung from a flagpole 
500 miles high. The consideration of such 
a signal only belongs to the domain of the 
imagination. As an illustration, it should 
conclusively settle the question of the pos¬ 
sibility or rather impossibility of signalling 
between the two planets. 

Let us suppose that the signalling power 
of wireless telegraphy had been advanced 
to such perfection that it was possible to 
transmit a signal across a distance of 8,000 
miles, equal to the diameter of the earth, 
or 1-30 the distance to the moon. Now, in 









210 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 


order to be appreciable at the moon it 
would require the intensity of the 8,000 
mile ether waves to be raised not merely 
30 times, but 30 times 30, for to use the 
ordinary expression, the intensity of an ef¬ 
fect spreading in all directions like the 
ether waves, decreases inversely ’as the 
square of the distance. If the whole earth 
were brought within the domain of wire¬ 
less telegraphy, the system would still have 
to be improved 900 times as much again 
before the moon could be brought within 
the sphere of its influence. A wireless 
telegraphic signal, transmitted across a 
distance equal to the diameter of the earth, 
would be reduced to a mere sixteen-mil¬ 
lionth part if it had to travel over the dis¬ 
tance to Mars; in other words, if wireless 
telegraphy attained the utmost excellence 
now hoped for it—that is, of being able to 
girdle the earth—it would have to be in¬ 
creased a thousandfold and then a thou¬ 
sandfold again, and finally multiplied by 
16, before an appreciable signal could be 
transmitted to Mars. This seems like 
drawing the long bow, but it is a scientific 
truth. There is no doubt that ether waves 
can and do traverse the distance between 
the Earth and Mars, for the fact that sun¬ 
light reaches Mars and is reflected back to 
us proves this; but the source of waves 
adequate to accomplish such a feat must 
be on such a scale as to be hopelessly be- 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 211 

yond the power of man to initiate or con¬ 
trol. Electrical signalling to Mars is much 
more out of the question than wireless. 
Even though electrical phenomena pro¬ 
duced in any one place were sufficiently 
intense to be appreciable by suitable in¬ 
struments all over the earth, that intensitv 
would have to be enhanced another sixteen 
million-fold before they would be appre¬ 
ciable on the planet Mars. 

It is absolutely hopeless to try to span 
the bridge that lies between us and Mars 
by any methods known to present day sci¬ 
ence. Yet men styling themselves scien¬ 
tists say it can be done and will be done. 
This is a prophecy, however, which must 
lie in the future. 

As has been pointed out, we have 
as yet but scratched the outer sur¬ 
face in the fields of knowledge. What 
visions may not be opened to the eyes of 
men, as they go down deeper and deeper 
into the soil Secrets will be exhumed un¬ 
dreamt of now, mysteries will be laid bare 
to the light of day, and perhaps the psy¬ 
chic riddle of life itself may be solved. 
Then indeed, Mars may come to be looked 
on as a next-door neighbor, with whose 
life and actions we are as well acquainted 
as with our own. The thirty-five million 
miles that separate him from us may be 
regarded as a mere step in space and the 






212 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 


most distant planets of our system as but 
a little journey afield. Distant Uranus 
may be looked upon as no farther away 
than is, say, Australia from America at the 
present time. 

It is vain, however, to indulge in these 
premises. The veil of mystery still hangs 
between us and suns and stars and sys¬ 
tems. One fact lies before us of which 
there is no uncertainty —we die and pass 
away from our present state into some 
other. We are not annihilated into noth¬ 
ingness. Suns and worlds also die, after 
performing their allotted revolutions in 
the cycle of the universe. Suns glow for 
a time, and planets bear their fruitage of 
plants and animals and men, then turn for 
aeons into a dreary, icy listlessness and fi¬ 
nally crumble to dust, their atoms joining 
other worlds in the indestructibility of 
matter. 

After all, there really is no death, simply 
change—change from one state to another. 
When we say we die, we simply mean that 
we change our state. There is a life be¬ 
yond the grave. As Longfellow beauti¬ 
fully expresses it: 

“ Life is real, life is earnest, 

And the grave is not its goal, 

Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 

Was not spoken of the soul.” 


WITH OTHER WORLDS 213 

But whither do we go when we pass on? 
Where is the soul when it leaves the earthly 
tenement called the body? We, Chris¬ 
tians, in the light of revelation and of 
faith, believe in a heaven for the good; 
but it is not a material place, only a state 
of being. Where and under what condi¬ 
tions is that state? This leads us to the 
consideration of another question which is 
engrossing the minds of many thinkers and 
reasoners of the present day. Can we 
communicate with the Spirit world? De¬ 
spite the tenets and beliefs and experiences 
of learned and sincere investigators, we 
are constrained, thus far, to answer in the 
negative. 

Yet, though we cannot communicate 
with it, we know there is a spirit world; the 
inner consciousness of our being apprises 
us of that fact, we know our loved ones 
who have passed on are not dead but gone 
before, just a little space, and that soon we 
shall follow them into a higher existence. 
As Talmage said, the tombstone is not the 
terminus, but the starting post, the door to 
the higher life, the entrance to the state of 
endless labor, grand possibilities, and eter¬ 
nal progression. 


The End 




































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